Masisi said this yesterday at the official handover of government to the incoming President Duma Boko. "I'm not willing to run for the presidency. Am I going to be politically active? I can’t tell, but am I running for President again? No. This is it," Masisi told the press.
His reasons, Masisi said, would be ineffective as according to the Constitution, one can be President for only 10 years. "Reasons are as much as it is out of personal consideration. It's also out of a deep acceptance and realisation of what we are as the BDP {Botswana Democratic Party}. "We are a very dynamic party. We have lots of leaders, plenty. In our constitution, any president can do a maximum of two equivalent of 10 years. I did six and a half, if I was to run again for the presidency in effect, I would only be running for president for three and a half years," he said.
According to Masisi it also wouldn’t make sense for him to re-surface in 2029 because it would also burden his party. "Why would I burden the public for a hiccup of a presidency? Why would I burden my party that we don't have a depth of human resources? Why would I go through that? And what if I lose? Why would I not want to leave at this highest moment of submission to democratic ideals?" The former president has said he won't want to burden his party and further accepted they lost. "I lost the election. I fully understand that is democracy. I lost, fact. We have been winning for the last 58 years, and this time around we lost, why would I not accept? We lost, I told the democrats that we lost elections, nothing else." Masisi was President from 2018 until last Thursday.
