27 Jun 2024

As the general elections, constitutionally slated for October this year draws nearer, different political parties are preparing ground work towards victory.

In an interview with political party spokespersons,  parties are confident that they will emerge victorious.

For the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) secretary general, Dr Mpho Pheko, she said they completed their primary elections last year in November.

“We have so far managed to identify candidates in all the 54 constituencies out of the existing 61.

We forfeited seven constituencies because we gauged our strength and noted that we do not have that much of a chance in them,” she said.

Dr Pheko said, however, that should a party member step up and stand for elections in one of those, the party would offer them full support.

She said completing primary elections early has given her party enough time to gauge itself, and that they are currently on a roll-out of launching candidates.

“The launches will culminate in that of the party president on a date that will be confirmed with time, but I can assure the electorate that the BCP is ready even if the national elections were to be called tomorrow,” she said.

She also said out of the 54 constituencies that they will be contesting, the BCP has set itself a target of 31 seats, enough to form a government.

Dr Pheko also welcomed the move by Government to fund political parties, but indicated that the funds should have been availed earlier than the stipulated three months before elections, as campaigns start much earlier.

The Botswana National Front (BNF) publicity secretary, Mr Tumelo Legase, also said primary elections by his party are all but done.

“Under the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), the BNF was allocated 26 constituencies and out of that, we are only left with Gaborone North and Lobatse owing to some internal issues, and primary elections for all the other constituencies are done,” he said.

He said after the completion of the remaining two, it is then that they can set dates for candidates’ launches, but he said they were thinking of the beginning of July to October.

On whether launching candidates so close to the general elections would not disadvantage them, Legase said candidates launch as just a part of a whole campaign exercise, and that campaigns were already in full force.

The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) chairman of communications, Mr Kagelelo ‘Banks’ Kentse, said his party expects to conclude primary elections by the end of June or first week of July.

“That is the position of the party as was announced by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi sometime back, and we are still awaiting further development following on that announcement,” he said.

Mr Kentse also said so far his party has not formulated any plans for candidates launch, but that the issue will be addressed soon.

“So far we have five constituencies where candidates are unopposed, and these are Kanye North, Palapye, Boteti West, Shashe West and Molepolole South,” he said.

Concerning the Maun East constituency where the party has not yet identified a candidate, Mr Kentse said the party was still seized with the matter, and that an announcement will be made as soon as consultations have been concluded.

Mr Kentse also said his party was unfazed by the fact that its candidates will be confirmed so close to the general elections. “It is our journey and we will be ready when the general elections come,” he said.

The Botswana People Party (BPP) secretary of communications, Mr Alfred Mashungwa, said his party has concluded primaries in all but one constituency they have been allocated under the UDC.

“We were allocated seven constituencies and we managed to reach consensus in six of them. The only remaining constituency is Tati East.

We tried by all means to avoid primaries and prioritised consensus because primaries have a risk of causing friction among those that have expressed interest,” he said.

Mr Mashungwa said consensus worked well for the BPP as the party was currently conflict free, which he said put the party in a good position to perform well in the general elections.

He said as one of the oldest parties in the country, the BPP has a duty to be exemplary for the sake of the larger opposition.

He said so far they have no plans on when they will start candidates’ launches as that was the responsibility of the larger UDC.

For his part, the Alliance for Progressives (AP) spokesperson, Dr Phenyo Butale, indicated that his party was allocated 12 constituencies and that they have identified candidates in all of them, with candidates’ launces to start in July until a month or so before the general elections.

“We will publicise the dates, and we have also finished primaries for council wards and what is left is just completing ward allocations. We have been working with our cooperating partners in the UDC,” he said.

Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) information and publicity secretary, Mr Amogelang Mokwena indicated that his party was supposed to hold its first batch of primary elections in this last weekend of June, while the second batch was slated for the first weekend of July.

“The first batch was for the north of Dibete while the second batch was for the south of the divide, but we have since postponed the primaries because we wanted to give our candidates enough time to verify the voters’ rolls. This is important to avoid any future complaints,” he said.

Mr Mokwena said that they will decide on the new date after the verification process, and that they do not expect the primaries to be a big deal as they will be held in just about seven of the 34 constituencies they are contesting in, while the rest have compromised on one candidate.

“Remember that BPF is just five years old, so we have not yet established ourselves fully across the country, and we had to forfeit some constituencies looking at our resources and strength on the ground,” he said.

He said that so far, party structures have been ordered to hold political rallies to build up the hype, while candidates’ launches were only expected after the completion of the primaries.ENDS