He beat five other parliamentary candidates namely Dr Derrick Tlhoiwe of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Gofaone Keakile of Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), Robert Setshogo of Botswana Republican Party (BRP), Patrick Molefe of Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), and Independent candidate John Mhaladi, to the seat. In 2019, Mabeo contested for the parliamentary seat for the first time on the Alliance for Progressives (AP) ticket but fell short as BDP, through Lefoko Moagi, snatched the constituency from the opposition. Mabeo has since told The Monitor that BCP has always been his ‘home’.
He explained that he moved to AP because he was not happy with some ‘things’ at the time when BCP joined UDC. “After the 2019 elections, there were several discussions between me and the people of Gamalete, pleading that I return to the BCP. In the end, I decided to return home which is BCP. “This is where it all started and I agreed with the people of my constituency that I should return to BCP. I'm happy that we worked hard and won the constituency back. You'll remember that I'm the second MP to win this constituency under the BCP ticket after Samuel Rantuana,” Mabeo said.
The constituency was painted green from the day of the elections last Wednesday until the end of the counting process on Saturday morning (November 2). With the UDC winning most of the parliamentary and council seats countrywide, in Gamalete it was becoming clear on Wednesday night that the BCP was taking over the area. At the end of the counting process for the council seats, BCP had secured 11 out of the 16 that were contested. By the time the counting process commenced for parliamentary candidates, BCP was in the lead from start to finish followed by the BDP and then the UDC on the third.
In the end, Mabeo was announced the winner with 9,838 votes, beating Tlhoiwe with more than 1,000 votes. Mabeo said as the new Gamalete representative in Parliament, he will do his best to tackle issues that affect his constituents. “To be honest we are very much far behind in terms of developments in this area and my duty is to ensure that I represent my constituency well in Parliament,” he said.
