BDP's vetting process begins for opposition-held constituencies

Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Central Committee is this Friday scheduled to conduct final vetting for members contesting for elections in opposition-held constituencies. BDP will be conducting its primary elections (Bulela-Ditswe) in 19 opposition-held constituencies on October 21 this year. Controversy has always rocked Bulela Ditswe with most people not happy with outcomes going on to contest as independent candidates.

Party Secretary General Mpho Balopi has confirmed this. Vetting is done at branch (constituency) level by the 18 elected members of the branch committee. Ex-officio members - Councillors or MPs - do not participate in the process. The branch committee then writes recommendations to the Central Committee on individual candidates stating whether in their opinion such a candidate can stand for elections or not.

Balopi stated that the central committee would then have a final say as to who should contest and those that are being disqualified. The secretary general indicated that as soon as the central committee is done with vetting, they would announce the names of the people who have qualified to contest.

He explained that to qualify a candidate has to comply with the Electoral Act, which is used by Independent Electoral Commission, being a BDP member in good standing, and abide by the party constitution and guidelines. He stated that names of candidates were received from constituencies last week.

“Our target is that come 2019 if not all, we should win most of the opposition-held constituencies. We are currently the only united party and we are prepared to continue to be in power post 2019,” he said. The party has stated that it has put mechanisms in place to ensure that the party’s controversial Bulela-Ditswe runs smoothly. Bulela-Ditswe has since inception in 2003 been a headache for the party. The party has on several occasions tried to reform the system but it continued to work negatively for the BDP.