Kealotswe optimistic he can beat UDC's Moswaane
Samuel Kealotswe who lost the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) primary elections in 2018 ahead of the 2019 general elections, is poised to challenge Ignatius Moswaane, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Francistown West next year.
Unlike in 2018 when the two were both BDP members, Moswaane has since defected to the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) following a fallout with the ruling party which resulted in him openly maligning it.
“There is no way Moswaane can beat me in Francistown,” said the Francistown-born Kealotswe whose father, Bright Kealotswe was a radio personality. He insists that the 2018 BDP primary elections were rigged in favour of Moswaane.
According to Kealotswe, Moswaane left the BDP because of fear of competition in the party. “Nobody wants him. His councilors sabotaged him at every turn,” added Kealotswe who is however uncertain about his candidacy in the next elections as yet because of looming primary elections.
When he left the BDP, Moswaane was joined by two (2) out of eight councillors in the constituency. The absence of Moswaane does not completely allay Kealotswe’s ‘phobia’ for primary elections.
“I lost the primaries primarily because Moswaane had trafficked people from both Francistown and other constituencies. Government must do everything possible to ensure that voter trafficking does not feature in our body politik both at the party and national levels.
“Outsiders must never be allowed to decide the leadership of a community they are not part of because that is undemocratic,” suggested the businessman-cum- politician popularly known as Grembo, a moniker he shares with several of his businesses among which are Grembo Diamonds and Grembo Travels.
He is also a farmer and owns shops and certainly not a supporter of voter trafficking.
“Voter trafficking is a corrupt activity. It does not make sense since it allows people to vote where they neither reside nor have any interest. What you need as a candidate is the support of your community,” he said.
Kealotswe, a native of Francistown, accused the opposition of always claiming that the ruling party rigs the elections to influence the outcome of the polls.
“They have always lost fair and square. Instead of accepting the elections, they, out of embarrassment, look for excuses. For example, instead of blaming their leader, Duma Boko who made some rather toxic and irresponsible utterances at the debate on the eve of the 2019 general elections, they cried foul claiming cheating by the ruling party,” Kealotswe said.