Though he said they will do further investigations to find out what transpired, Masisi said there was no cheating. He said amongst the reason they think they lost is because the then main opposition parties made rich promises. “If you put our manifesto against those of the two main opposition parties, the UDC and the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), they had something in common. They promised people lots of monies. Imagine when you have been unemployed and being told the economy is not performing well and you get such promises. Even on election day you could see there was a lot of happiness. A lot of new merchandise was also flaunted and people were convinced that there was hope and they voted for them,” declared the seemingly frustrated Masisi. Masisi said he could not deny that their campaign was not as attractive as that of the opposition parties.
He said as the BDP, they could only promise what they believe the economy could manage. “We condemn these promises as we continue to doubt that they will deliver these promises. It is impossible because it would cause problems. Prices would sky rocket, it will cause the economy to collapse and it will make dealing with other countries and financiers to doubt us. This is because our main source of money is diamonds and they are not being bought. Also their prices rise and fall from time to time and unfortunately for us, the prices fell during the elections cycle and we could not control it,” he said. Masisi said despite this, he was proud that the BDP members still voted for their party in large numbers, his party achieved the second highest number of votes across the country. He said if it was not for First Past The Post system, they would be having more legislators. “But I am not complaining about the system because we are a national party. We were all over the country hence we believe that we can still regroup and regain power in 2029,” he said, adding that they will launch investigations on what happened and come back strong.
Masisi further reiterated that he would not stand for another term but would step down as BDP president next year when his mandate from the BDP comes to an end. He said it would have been irresponsible and cowardice of him had he immediately stepped down. “I never thought about quitting hastily because as a leader of such a huge organisation and you quit after losing elections, it would be irresponsible of me. You should stay and talk to the people until all has settled and a suitable leader is selected. It would also look like I was a coward, but I am not one and I am going to meet with the BDP members including those who have been writing accusing me on social media,” he said.
Meanwhile, Masisi also thanked the BCP president, Dumelang Saleshando, for walking away from the UDC in 2014 as the BDP could have lost power then. “It was not the first time that we nearly lost elections. You will know that if it was not for Saleshando who I thank so much and his party walking away from the UDC, we would have lost power then. We escaped with a whisker getting just 47% of the popular vote. We would have been an opposition party then,” he said.
