The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) will be best placed to comment on the chaotic Annex 1 primary elections held last weekend in 36 constituencies once a consolidated report has been submitted to the central committee, and this will only be after the second annex for 25 constituencies this weekend.
This has been revealed by the Party Secretary General Kavis Kario this week when asked for a comment on the chaotic nature of the first batch of primaries.
“The elections committee is yet to compile a report for last weekend’s election and from this coming weekend’s elections then submit, that is when I will be in a position to address what transpired during the primary elections,” Kario said.
The primary elections were chaotic in that in all the polling districts and stations across constituencies, elections started way later than the 0600hrs set starting time, with ballot boxes arriving in some constituencies 12 hours later. All the while MaDomi queued from as early as 4 am and spent hours in queues waiting for the voting to begin.
In most polling stations across the country, voting commenced in the afternoon with the voting going on overnight and counting done in the wee hours while in some areas voting was postponed to Sunday and counting went on to Monday.
When the voting finally started at various times across the country, another challenge reared its ugly head, voters could not find their names in the voters’ rolls’ at polling stations they are traditionally accustomed to. In some instances, they had to move from one polling station to another in search of their entries in the voters’ list.
The North West region conducted primaries in all but two constituencies, that is Ngami and Chobe.
The Maun North constituency was of great interest to many, due to the fact that by its very nature is the widest, with a difficult terrain spanning from Maun all the way to Khwai. Most importantly the characters who vied for the party’s parliamentary candidacy. Former Maun West MP Ronald Ridge, Prophet Thato P Elias and Gakenosi Mpho were in the ballot for this constituency.
The Prophet won the elections with 1076 votes against Gakenosi Mpho’s 890 votes and Ronald Ridge got 238 votes. In a rare show of support, the ‘Church’ was visible on the ground in support of TP Elias, and his congregation voting in large numbers to see him through. It was Gakenosi G-Force Mpho who put up a brave fight against Prophet TP Elias’s large fan base, and against all odds –managed to reduce the Man of God’s margin to just 196; it could have been more.
In Maun West Thato Kwerepe won with 2415 votes against Henda Uananisa who got 1330 votes.
The BDP is expected to announce the Maun East candidate, identified by the central committee, following the vetting out of Reaboka Mbulawa, Costa Markos and Chris Bethia.
Meanwhile some voters in the Maun West Constituency’s Tsau Polling Station who preferred to remain anonymous expressed frustrations of the late commencement of voting. One voter indicated that she expected the primaries to run smoothly as the party had had more time to prepare for the elections.
She indicated that from the draft voter’s rolls that were circulating and the final voter’s rolls that were used during elections in Tsau polling station, she found names of two of her late relatives, something which she believes the party should have addressed and removed them from the roll as it had ample time to prepare for the primary elections.
In most cases according to the source, some of the voters found themselves allocated areas as far as Makakung though they have for the past years been religiously voting in Tsau village, while some democrats’ names were nowhere to be found in any of the voters’ rolls.
Party, Secretary General Kavis Kario noted that they are yet to receive a report from the election committee after the last cohort has been elected this coming weekend.
“The committee is yet to compile a report for last weekend’s election and from this coming weekend’s elections then submit it, that is when I will be in a position to address what transpired during the primary elections,” Kario said.
