BDP to deliberate on primaries, constituencies
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday August 7, 2023 06:00
Some constituencies and wards were reconfigured following the delimitation exercise. The BDP will hold its NC and SNC on September 2 and 3 in Palapye. Over the years, BDP primary elections dubbed Bulela Ditswe in the vernacular have been rocked by allegations of electoral fraud.
In 2018, the party suspended two employees at its Secretariat over allegations that they tampered with the voters roll to favour their preferred candidates.
The Bulela Ditswe system, which was introduced in 2003 before the 2004 General Election, has been a source of concern to some BDP activists who alleged that their supporters were removed from the membership registration books.
This situation led to some BDP aspiring candidates, mainly at council level, to ditch the party and stand as independent candidates in the national polls.
The dismal performance of the BDP in the 2014 General election when its popular vote dropped to below 50% for the first time in its history, was partly attributed to Bulela Ditswe.
To cure discontent that led to poor performance, the BDP’s central committee (CC) appointed former Cabinet minister, Peter Siele, to lead a commission that investigated the source of problems associated with Bulela Ditswe and offer its recommendations to the party.
Amongst other issues, the Siele commission was tasked with finding out whether the Bulela Ditswe system was still working for the BDP, why there were many problems associated with Bulela Ditswe, whether the system can be fixed and if not, what is the alternative that that the party can pursue.
The Siele report found out that 108 complaints, the highest number ever, related to Bulela Ditswe were registered prior to the 2014 general election.
The Siele-led commission later handed its report to the BDP CC and the recommendations were thoroughly discussed at the party congress in 2015 in Mmadinare. The BDP voters’ roll, as per the Siele report, lacked secure features, some dishonest party officials included and removed names of registered voters from the voters’ roll as they pleased, other aspiring candidates were denied access to the voters’ roll while some were favoured.
The BDP nonetheless resolved to retain the Bulela Ditswe as the best system that bonafide members of the party can use to choose aspiring public office bearers. Kario has also denied allegation that the BDP will ditch the Bulela Ditswe system in favour of using the consensus candidates model to choose its aspiring councillors and legislators.
“That is false. One of the cornerstones of democracy that the BDP cherishes is that every bonafide member of the party should be given a fair chance to stand for elections wherever they want. In addition to that, the BDP gives all its registered members the opportunity to choose their preferred aspiring office bearers an equal chance of doing that without favouring some over others. If party members at ward or constituency level want to forgo primary elections, then the party leadership will not stand in their way,” Kario clarified.
He added that the decision to forgo primary elections is not from the BDP’s top leadership and is not a resolution of the party. The issue of primary election is expected to feature prominently during the BDP NC and SNC. Over the past weekend when welcoming former BDP members who had defected from the party amongst them the deputy speaker of parliament and Member of Parliament for Tonota, Pono Moatlhodi, President Mokgweetsi Masisi intimated the BDP was partly rocked by primaries headaches because of infiltration by members of the opposition.
Masisi said that members of the opposition were infiltrating the BDP in order for weak candidates to prevail in the party’s internal polls, a situation which is a bitter pill to swallow for some bona fide BDP activists. On other related issues, Kario stated that the issue of a special congress where the president (leader) of the BDP is chosen will be decided next year. “The BDP will hold its special congress next year and not this year. If the congress decides to hold elections to replace its current leaders or to retain its current leaders, the BDP will have no choice but to respect whatever decision its majority membership wants,” said Kario.