by Lekopanye Mooketsi – SANF 04 no 93
The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that has dominated national elections since independence in 1966 is expected to win the country’s general elections set for 30 October.
The Secretary of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Gabriel Seeletso says they are ready to conduct the elections, and the only setback is that they have been unable to amalgamate the three voters rolls into one electoral roll to ensure accuracy.
About 500,000 people (60 percent of eligible voters) have registered and polling stations have been set up throughout the country, within at least a 500-metre walking distance for most registered voters.
The parliamentary constituencies have been increased from 40 to 57 seats following a delimitation exercise undertaken last year, which increased the parliamentary seats of the capital city, Gaborone, from three to five.
For the past 20 years, Gaborone has been a stronghold for the main opposition party, the Botswana National Front (BNF), although BDP managed to take one seat in 1999.
Although there are about 10 registered political parties, the real contest is expected to be among the BDP, the BNF and the Botswana Congress Party (BCP). The BNF has entered into an alliance with two other opposition parties, Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM).
During the last general elections in 1999, the BDP won 33 parliamentary seats while BNF won six and the then newly formed BCP took one.
The only time when the opposition posed a serious threat to the ruling party was in 1994, when the BNF romped home with 13 seats. But a major split in the party that led to the formation of the BCP saw the BNF losing seats in the 1999 elections. Vote splitting among the opposition parties is expected to work against them again in the current elections.
The ruling BDP draws most of its support in the rural areas where it is deeply rooted, due in part to respect for the first leader of the party and first president of Botswana, Chief Seretse Khama.
Khama was chief of the powerful Bamangwato people in central Botswana, and most of the BDP parliamentary seats fall under the central region where the memory of Khama is still highly revered.
Khama’s eldest son, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, succeeded him as chief and is also Vice-President of Botswana. He is expected to take over the leadership of party and country when President Festus Mogae retires in 2008, a year before the next elections.
As a chief, Khama wields the influence of his father, and he is a drawing card for the ruling party, launching most of the parliamentary candidates.
In his constituency in Serowe, home of the Bamangwato, he is standing unopposed, the only parliamentary candidate to achieve this feat countrywide.
Opposition parties are constrained by limited funds such that they are not able to campaign throughout the country. However, the BDP has rejected calls for government to fund political parties. The opposition alleges that the ruling party receives funds from unnamed donors.
Some of the key issues in this election campaign are unemployment, poverty, HIV and AIDS and the economy. While Botswana is regarded as a country with a fast growing economy, opposition parties maintain that Batswana are living in abject poverty and that the country’s economy is still controlled by foreigners.
Although official statistics are not available, unemployment levels in the country have increased in addition to increasing rural to urban migration. It is alleged that even university graduates are finding it difficult to secure jobs. There is also an acute shortage of accommodation in urban areas, a situation which opposition parties promise to address once elected into power.
Botswana has a very high percentage of people who are HIV positive, and government has been waging a war against the pandemic, one of the first African countries to provide free anti-retroviral treatment.
However, opposition parties maintain that the government cannot effectively tackle HIV and AIDS without addressing poverty first, as they argue that the two are inter-related.
Unlike most other countries in the region where the president is directly elected, in Botswana, the party with the majority of parliamentary seats chooses the president for two five-year terms.
Botswana uses the “first past the poll” system with representation by constituency. But the opposition has been calling for change to a system of proportional representation. (SARDC)
