UDC and BCP to become one party- Modubule

All constituencies held by any of the parties in the UDC are currently under management of the concerned parties awaiting nomination of a right candidate to be decided by the UDC in the 2019 general election.

National Chairperson of Botswana Movement for Democracy Nehemiah Modubule who was one of the negotiators at the just-concluded Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) talks said this in a bid to clear speculation that BMD Members of Parliament boycotted the UDC launch as they were aggrieved on constituency allocations and sharing of vice presidency with Botswana Congress Party (BCP) because they feel BMD is currently superior than BCP in terms of number of constituencies under its command.

Modubule said the two vice presidents will have different roles within the party and people should not be concerned about partisan issues as the main focus should be on UDC. He said all constituencies held under various coalition members belong to the UDC who will decide on the best candidates to represent the party in the next general election without considering which party had previously held the constituency.

Asked about the possibility of dismantling all the political parties forming the UDC to come up with one united opposition, he said they were on course. “People must recall that when this pact resumed, we were just a pact using our various party colours under a common goal of defeating the ruling Botswana Democratic Party in 2019.

Currently we have done away with different party colours and symbols since we have decided to use one colour and symbol in the next general election. By the look of things, we will eventually move to the direction of a united single party,” he said.

He wondered why reports were rife that BMD MPs have boycotted the launch while in actual fact most of the opposition MPs from other coalition parties were also not present.