UDC partners ready for 2019 :: Mmegi Online

Politicians have started running helter-skelter in search of party tickets ahead of the 2019 general elections as the season to seek fresh mandates for both Council and Parliament is really upon us. Mmegi Staff Writer, RYDER GABATHUSE tests the readiness of the quartet coalition opposition parties of Botswana National Front (BNF), Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), Botswana Congress Party and Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) united under the ambit of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC)

FRANCISTOWN: The quartet opposition coalition parties have vowed to usurp power from the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that has not lost a single general election since 1965, albeit with dwindling popularity. The UDC is certainly buoyed by the ruling party’s below 50% popular vote recorded in the 2014 general elections. The BDP had garnered about 46.7%, the first since Independence.

The UDC hope comes in the backdrop of the opposition bloc having experienced a major setback, especially after a partner BMD, experienced a split that saw one of its factions morphing into a fully-fledged party known as the Alliance for Progressives (AP) led by NdabaGaolathe, formerly BMD president. The breakaway happened after last year’s infamous Bobonong bloody congress held at Matshekge Hill School.

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