This week former secretary general and Gaborone South MP, Akanyang Magama, filed a legal suit before the Lobatse High Court demanding that he be declared the BNF's parliamentary candidate to represent the party at the general election in 2009.
In February this year, Magama won the BNF primaries, beating lawyer, Tebogo Sebego, with a margin of 45 votes. However, following a protest by Sebego, the BNF's national appeals board ordered that there be a re-run at Gaborone South. Magama is not going to the rerun without a fight. In a filed court notice prepared by his lawyer, Dutch Leburu of Monthe, Marumo & Company, Magama is opposing a re-run of the party's primary elections on the grounds that there were procedural irregularities.
Magama states that the decisions made by the party's secretary general, Mahommed Khan, cited as first respondent, and Victor Moupo cited as the second respondent, were clouded with malice and a strong desire to frustrate him. Khan is accused of amending the party primary election rules and regulations when he has no power to do so. Magama is challenging a letter written to all constituencies by Khan directing that the decisions by the party's appeals committee shall be by a simple majority and binding to all.
