UDC faces interparty defection dilemma

There are fears that the defection of one member of any of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) partners to the other, may become a source of unease and a potential threat to the cohesion of the coalition itself. Following the recent resignation of Samson Guma Moyo from the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) amid rumours that his supporters from the faction-ridden BPF will follow suit very soon, there has been a debate as to whether allowing individuals of affiliates of the UDC to defect from one affiliate to another is a good idea.A UDC official told this publication off the record that UDC processes allow individual party members to move to the next party inside the coalition. “Our laws allow that. However, the concerned person cannot join any of the UDC partners if his defection is as a result of an expulsion or suspension from his party,” said the official, who nevertheless admits that such a defector or defectors could cause tensions to develop.“There is the unfortunate possibility that several members could defect from a particular party to another for ulterior motives such as constituting themselves into a faction before infiltrating and undermining the host party with the view to take over the leadership of that party,” another UDC official preferring to speak off-record said.His view is that, ‘’the window of opportunity’’ may be abused by unscrupulous coalition partners to actively recruit from their cooperation partners with the view to grow its support base and eventually emerge as the leading coalition partner.Responding to a written enquiry from this publication, the UDC Head of Communications, Moeti Mohwasa said that the UDC was not in a position to comment on the matter, "as we are still to be briefed on the developments at the BPF.”This publication also sought to establish whether Moyo had applied for membership of the UDC and if he has, whether his application had been accepted or not.

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UDC faces interparty defection dilemma