UDC failed itself in Ralekgetho – Monare

Defeated Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) council candidate for Ralekgetho Ward Johnson Monare says the party has a lot to do in voter education to counter Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). Monare who is a former councillor for the Ward lost the bye-election over the weekend to Omphile Motlhajwe of BDP. Monare got 233 votes against Motlhajwe’s 339 while Mothusiemang Malwetse of Alliance for Progressives (AP) came third with 45 votes. In an interview with this publication after results were announced Monare stated that people knew little about the new UDC symbol.

“There is a lot of voter education that the party has to do. I cannot blame anyone for the loss except the party. “Had we done enough education about the party we could have performed better if not winning the ward. Most people did not understand what we were talking about when we told them that I am now contesting under UDC,” stated Monare. He accused the BDP of capitalising on this shortcoming. According to Monare, the BDP on the ground used his defection from the BDP to the BCP as a weapon against him.

“They told people that I have defected to the BCP from their party and have once again defected to a new party. “Those that I spoke to revealed to me that they have been told that the BCP is not there and there are new parties contesting against BDP. I had a lot of explaining to do together with my team because the people were seeing the UDC symbol for the first time since official launch of the party last month,” he stated. He added that the party would meet this week to do evaluation of the elections. In 2014 Monare contested under BCP when the party was not part of the UDC. In 2014 the UDC got 218 of the 799 votes that were cast in that ward represented by Gaokgakala Masope; the BCP’s Monare garnered 270 votes while the late Calvin Rakala of the BDP got 291 voters. At that time Monare’s campaign was led by Malwetse.