Welcome to 2024

Mmegi Editor | Monday January 15, 2024 06:00

South Africa, Mozambique, Rwanda and Ghana (further in West Africa) amongst others like Botswana, will at different periods hold national polls to usher in new governments.

As we draw a set of our personal and professional goals, let us make a provision for the impending registration for the elections and ultimately partake in the actual voting process.

Botswana goes to the polls at least in October 2024, as it is the tradition during the elections year. This will offer potential voters an opportunity to duly make their preferred choices in time. It will also make sense if the majority of those who qualify to vote register in large numbers and exercise their democratic right to elect a government of their choice.

As part of the preparations for Botswana’s national 13th polls, last week Friday, the President Mokgweetsi Masisi-led government finally launched a month-long registration exercise for the 2024 General Election after the process was halted to allow the back and forth court process to come to its finality. This follows the failed bid by the opposition coalition parties, Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), fighting to observe the registration process, which they believe is the first level through which elections are rigged by the ruling elite.

“Tsamayang le e go ikwadisa ka makatanamane! (Go and register in large numbers!),” the President appealed to the nation in a message that has been widely disseminated through the national television station, local radio stations and other media.

We take this opportunity to encourage Batswana who are eligible,18 years and above, to go and register in large numbers as the process will culminate in them choosing a government of their choice. We need to encourage Batswana never to turn themselves into bystanders and tomorrow blame the government they did not vote for, if things do not work in their favour.

Young people, women, people with disability, men, the elderly and just everybody, let us all go and ensure we partake in the registration exercise. We should at the right time then go and line up to cast our votes and complete the process that started last week. As a nation, we owe it to ourselves to make the right decisions at the right time. It is possible to hit the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) set target of registering 1.7 million people who are eligible to vote if we commit ourselves.

GBV

Meanwhile, we need to express our utter disillusionment and repugnance at the rate at which the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) continues to swell in our country. We must hasten to show that it is possible that together we can curb this scourge that continues to decimate many, especially women and girls at the hands of their male friends. Men, let us respect the sanctity of life and walk away from a hostile relationship if all efforts to sustain it have collapsed. Women also have a right to live.

Today's thought

“A man without a vote is a man without protection.”

– Lyndon B. Johnson, former U.S. President