BDP endorses Masisi for presidency
The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) will this weekend convene in Tlokweng for its 40th National Congress.
The purpose of the Congress is to elect Presidential Candidate for the 2024 general election. The party will also launch its Manifesto and Parliamentary candidates. BDP Communications and International Relations Chairman Kagelelo Kentse said in an interview that the party is preparing for the 40th National Congress which will be on the 30th August 2024 at Grand Aria Conference Centre in Tlokweng.
The congress is expected to elect the President of the Party as per Article 29 of the BDP constitution. The Article reads that, ‘When the Party is in power, the President of the Party shall be elected by secret ballot at a National Congress of the Party called by the Central Committee during every General Election’.
Said Kentse: “The party is also gearing up for the 2024 Manifesto Launch also to be held in Tlokweng at the Grand Aria Stadium on the 1st of September 2024. The BDP will be going full force on both events and show its presence and relevance in the political landscape of Botswana. We are going to ‘Paint Tlokweng Red’”.
The BDP mouthpiece urged Democrats and indeed Batswana at large to come and hear what the “party of choice has for them in its manifesto promises.” According to Kentse the party will also account and communicate the successes of the 2019 manifesto.
Botswana Guardian has established that almost all the Branches have endorsed Masisi as the presidential candidate during the respective Branch Congresses. Masisi is expected to have no challenger unlike in 2019 where he was to face former cabinet member Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi during a special congress held in Kang.
Venson-Motoi pulled out of the race at the eleventh hour indicating that she would not participate in a flawed electoral process. She also complained prior to the special congress that she had been placed under surveillance by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS).
The Kang Special congress left the party polarised which resulted in its split few months before the 2019 general election with disgruntled members forming the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF).
Former President Ian Khama who had supported Venson-Moitoi for the presidential bid was accused of dividing the BDP. Ahead of the congress in March 2019 some former Members of Parliament expressed their
disappointment at Khama for supporting Masisi’s challenger.
They argued that Khama’s support of Venson-Moitoi to challenge Masisi for the BDP presidency has further deepened the divisions within the BDP and nationally just six (6) months before the General Elections in October 2019.
“It is our collective observation as former BDP Members of Parliament that HE MEK Masisi has made a good start as president of the BDP and the Republic of Botswana. He has particularly committed to the Vision 2036, rule of law, stakeholder engagement, poverty eradication, aggressive empowerment of citizens and the fight against corruption to mention a few flagship programs in his road map for the country,” they said in letter to the party.