Pact Model, a win-win for all - Reatile
Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) President, Mephato Reatile says the Pact model that they want to enter into with the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) will be beneficial to both parties.
The BPF leadership being the National Executive Committee (NEC), Regional chairpersons and Secretaries and Constituency chairpersons and Secretaries held a meeting in Serowe this past weekend where a decision was taken to withdraw from the coalition.
BPF has been a contracting partner together with Alliance for Progressives (AP), Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Peoples’ Party (BPP) in the UDC.
Reatile told a press conference at Serowe Hotel on Sunday that he has invoked powers vested in him by the party Constitution, specifically Clause 20.6.4 to withdraw his party from the UDC. He stated that they would be using the BPF symbol in the coming 2024 general election.
“This clause empowers the president in instances where he sees that there are troubles within the party and the party’s interest has to be saved.
“We deliberated at length on this decision and it was not an easy one. As painful as it may be, it is for the benefit of the party and its members,” Reatile, who is also Member of Parliament for Jwaneng-Mabutsane., explained
He said they are confident that the Pact Model will solve most of the problems that are affecting the UDC. He told the media that they have since written to the UDC to inform them of the decision taken.
In the letter dated 7th April 2024 seen by this publication, Reatile states: “I write to inform you of a decision that I, as BPF President, took on the 6th April 2024 at a BPF consultative meeting pertaining to our cooperation for the 2024 general election. At this meeting, and given issues with allocation of wards and Constituencies among others, we decided to propose to work with the UDC through a pact instead of the alliance we had envisaged.”
Reatile stated that based on this decision, they cease all engagements they had entered into for an alliance “with yourselves. We, however, request for a meeting to discuss the prospects of a pact at your earliest convenience.”
Reatile has revealed that one of the burning issues raised when he toured constituencies was the allocation of wards. He told journalists that guidelines for wards allocations were trampled upon.
“The guidelines carved on a 60/40 ratio indicate that where a party has been allocated a constituency, that particular party gets 60 percent and the other partners share the remaining 40 percent. But we saw a situation even where BPF is incumbent, colleagues were to have a bigger share. This cannot be right,” Reatile said.
He stated that the party members were also concerned that there are four Constituencies that were to be allocated to them but were given to other parties. The constituencies are Tonota, Shoshong, Shashe west and Francistown East.
“We did not push for some of these constituencies to be allocated to us. Take for instance in Francistown East, it was the AP and the BNF who wrote to the UDC leadership indicating that they believe that constituency is winnable under the BPF. It is not us who motivated that but colleagues who saw our strength,” Reatile said.
Reatile did not rule out prospects of clashes with UDC even if the duo agree on a Pact Model. There will be isolated cases of standoffs, he said.
He revealed that the decision he has taken can only be reviewed by the congress. The BPF congress is scheduled to be held next year. He however stated that, funds permitting, the party can call a special congress to deal with the matter before elections this year.
Before joining the UDC, the BPF worked with the coalition on a Pact Model for by-elections. The BPF NEC, and by extension other structures, have been in disagreement on the model of cooperation to adopt with UDC.
The Pact Model approach was defeated during the party’s congress last year in Gaborone when the congress endorsed a decision by the NEC to join the UDC.