Women's voice in Parliament lowers to 4.9%

The 2024 General Election has seen the lowest women representation in Parliament since 1979 with only three from 28 who was vying for the 61 parliamentary seats. The ruling party, Umbrella for Democratic Change’s (UDC) Helen Pushie Manyeneng became the first woman to be elected to Parliament in the recent polls. It was tightly contested race for Mmopane-Metsimotlhabe Constituency against James Lekgetho of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).

It took just 120 ballots for Manyeneng to pip her closest to Botswana’s 13th Parliament. It was however a landslide win for Maipelo Mophuting of the UDC in the Bonnington North Constituency as she had a more than 1,200 votes lead over Anna Mokgethi of the BDP. The Botswana Congress Party’s (BCP) Unity Dow completes the triangle with a slim margin win in the Kgatleng West Constituency. Dow remains the only woman to return from the 12th Parliament, where he had held a Specially Elected member seat. The ousted BDP’s women representation failed to attain a single seat in Parliament for the first time close to five decades.