For nearly six decades, weaker opposition coalitions wriggled to oust the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) from power. It was an exercise that proved arduous with all efforts simply pitiful and ludicrous. The opposition was not given even the slightest chance and its posture depicted a body of frustrated lot fighting for elusive change. Efforts to unite opposition parties for the purpose of winning the elections were trialled many decades ago. The Botswana Progressive Union (BPU), Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) and Botswana National Front (BNF) tried a pre-election coalition styled under the guise of Peoples Progressive Front (PPF), following a meeting held in Francistown in 1994. The Botswana Independence Party (BIP), which was part of the talks, would pull out of a possible coalition before the talks could even commence in earnest. Another key opposition political formation, Botswana Congress Party (BCP) would later merge with the Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM), (the latter is a party composed of Botswana Independence Party (BIP), Botswana Action Party, and Botswana Freedom Party in a merger that ultimately yielded one solid party going into the 2009 General Election. This was also an attempt to solidify the BCP. This development came after the BNF had pulled out of the arrangement (BAM) at the 2004 polls. Some section of the BPP leadership would also pull out pouring scorn on the viability of a coalition post the 2004 polls. The BCP was birthed in Palapye in 1998 as a splinter party from the BNF following a tumultuous conference.
On a number of occasions, the BCP abandoned coalition talks with the BNF and preferred a standalone due to common issues of mistrust and generally governance issues. At some stage, the BCP had also had a working relationship with the Alliance for Progressives (AP), which never lasted. The emergence of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), which was founded in 2012, faced challenges of the seemingly unreceptive political market, as it appeared it would not be a viable project. Every elections year since it was formed, the UDC project was tested twice before it eventually won the elections in 2024. It was post the 2019 General Election that the UDC went to court challenging the results of the polls citing massive irregularities, unfortunately, the courts never progressed the cases to the merits of the opposition cases.
