03 Mar 2024

Registered political parties have until Friday to submit proposals on how political party funding should be distributed.

The development, agreed during the All Party Conference held at Phakalane Golf Estates on Friday follows government decision to fund political parties with P34 million in the next financial year.

Speaking in a post conference media briefing, the Minister for State President, Mr Kabo Morwaeng indicated that the proposals would inform a bill that was to be presented before Parliament, possibly during the current sitting.

"Since it is a political year, the idea is for the bill to pass as soon as possible, but without flouting the laid down due processes," he said.

Mr Morwaeng also hailed the holding of the All Party Conference, the first one since March 2019.

"This is good for our democracy, especially that all the 21 registered political parties were invited. The meeting was fruitful and the plan is to hold this meeting as often as possible," he said. He said that the All Party Conference was good in that it also accommodated parties that were not in Parliament.

For his part, Umbrella for Democratic Change head of communications, Mr Moeti Mhwasa said although the conference was welcome, they had wished that other electoral reforms such as access to state media and the criteria for appointing members of the electoral commission could have been interrogated.

Botswana Democratic Party secretary general, Mr Kavis Kario also commended the return of the All Party Conference and its outcome.

"Although it took long, we are happy with the way discussions went, and that it was important for political party funding to be disbursed as quickly as possible to allow parties to fund their campaigns ahead of the general elections.

Mr Kario also said that parties have also agreed that other issues such and electoral reforms would be discussed in the next meeting.

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) secretary general, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile said that even though political party funding was a welcome development, there was a need to look at the current scenarios in the local political landscape.

"We have coalitions and alliances that we did not have in the past, and we also have new parties that did not stand for elections in the past, but need these funds to function. So we should not use past elections as a criteria for disbursing these funds," he said.

He however, said that caution should be exercised to ensure that the funding does not lead to unnecessary mushrooming of political parties.

Mr Kekgonegile also said that the issue of women representatives also should be addressed, and suggested that a formula was needed to encourage women participation at both council and parliamentary level.

Other issues on the agenda were the readiness for the general elections by the Independent Electoral Commission, as well as the appointment of members of the electoral commission. ends