New party challenges Botswana’s status quo

GABORONE – Four MPs have broken away from Botswana’s ruling party to launch the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), which an analyst says could radically change the country’s political landscape.

The BMD officially took off on Saturday morning when about 600 delegates from 57 electoral constituencies, clad in orange, descended on a community hall in Gaborone West for the party’s inaugural convention.Delegates chanted ‘Botswana is ours’, vowing to topple the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).Thapelo Ndlovu, national director of the Media Institute for Southern Africa in Botswana, pointed out that in last year’s general election, the opposition Botswana Congress Party (BCP) came close to winning a number of constituencies historically regarded as BDP strongholds.’The new party will affect the fortunes of the BDP by creating political opportunities for the opposition in marginal constituencies,’ Ndlovu said. If a sizeable number of BDP MPs defect to it before the next election in 2014, as is widely speculated, there is a strong likelihood that there will be a push for a motion of no confidence in President Ian Kham, he said.Botswana’s first-past-the-post electoral system translated into 45 National Assembly seats for the BDP and 10 for two opposition parties last year.Sidney Pilane, BMD spokesperson and former adviser to ex-president Festus Mogae, said the party had been established as a platform for democracy, in a context where ‘the practice of democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties in our country are declining at an alarming rate’.’As members of the BDP we tried to stem the decline,’ Pilane said. ‘We were met with intimidation, threats, suspensions and expulsions. We could not disagree with our leader or criticise him.’He complained that since April 2008 14 Botswana citizens had been murdered without resulting prosecutions and claimed that public servants were being fired without due process. Pilane said that thousands of people had registered for BMD membership.The BMD, which is still drafting its policy platform, has vowed to modernise the constitution, reduce the president’s powers, enhance checks against the abuse of power, strengthen civil society and promote youth empowerment and gender equality. ‘We will get rid of costly and unproductive pet projects,’ Pilane said. – Mail and Guardian