Why elections in October?
Bojosi Otlhogile | Monday May 6, 2024 09:05
Our elections are held every five years. Yes, every five years, though that is not what the Constitution demands.
The Constitution states that “91 (2) Subject to the provisions of the Constitution, the President may at any time dissolve Parliament'. In other words, he is not obliged to dissolve Parliament at the expiry of five years. He can do so any time. Botswana follows the Westminster system where elections are called at the prerogative of the head of state, in our case the President.
However, there is a caveat. The life of Parliament may not go beyond five years unless the Republic is in a state of war. Only then can Parliament extend its life beyond five years by 12 months at a time. But this may not exceed five years. So, if the President has not sooner dissolved it, Parliament only continues, “for five years from the date of its first sitting of the National Assembly after any dissolution”. Otherwise, it automatically stands dissolved at an expiry of five years. It is due to this Presidential discretion that the next General Election after the 1965 inaugural ones were held in 1969, within five years.
The President exercised his prerogative to call early elections. The elections were held on October 18, 1969. Why in October? Many reasons have been advanced why elections were held in October when, in fact, the five-year circle since the inaugural General Election in March 1965 would have led to March 1970.
Some academics have opined that Sir Seretse Khama called snap elections in October 1969 due to Kgosi Bathoen’s (BII) abdication and joining the opposition Botswana National Front (BNF). Sir Seretse feared that BII as a Kgosi would energise the opposition. To scupper the BNF’s fortunes, he called early elections before BII could exert his influence. Be that as it may, perhaps, the real reason for calling early elections can be garnered from Sir Seretse himself. This is contained in his communication to Dr Kenneth Kaunda. The letter is dated October 24, 1969, six days after the elections and his victory.
It was a response to Kaunda’s letter of September 27, 1969, in which Kaunda was proposing Sokoni as High Commissioner to Botswana. In the same letter, Kaunda had raised the issue of Sir Seretse’s health and that the latter had not confided in him (Kaunda) that his (Sir Seretse) health was waning. The genesis of the rumour of Seretse’s failing health was a series of articles in the South African press, notably Rand Daily Mail and Sunday Times. The story was later carried by Zambia Mail on October 10, 1969. Sir Seretse had undergone heart surgery the previous year and was fitted with a pacemaker. Thus, when he called early elections, the newspapers speculated that it was due to ill-health and that Seretse was planning to resign after elections and hand over to the then vice president, Sir Ketumile Masire. Sir Seretse dispelled the notion of a failing health.
“Incidentally, in case you were alarmed by a rumour in the Zambia Mail of October 10, to the effect that I called an early election because I was considering resigning for health reasons, I should like to reassure you. I have been in better health since my spell in hospital a year ago. Indeed, in the last two or three weeks, I have not only survived but generally enjoyed a heavy campaigning programme which took me all over the country.” Sir Seretse ruled for another decade before he died. In the same letter to Kaunda, Sir Serest gave his reason for calling an early election.
“The election was called for October 18,” he wrote, “in order to make sure that people voted in their villages before they went off to their lands to plough.” The inaugural elections were held in March thereby forcing people to abandon, albeit temporarily, their masimo (ploughing fields) to come and vote in the villages. It was inconvenient and not ideal. The turnout was disappointing. Calling elections in October turned out to be a colossal disaster. As Sir Seretse would himself admit. Rains came early and were sustained throughout the ploughing season, leading to mabele a mantsho.
“Unfortunately, early spring rains and other factors made for a lower poll than last time,” Seretse wrote. The lowest in Botswana’s election history. So for that simple reason, we have been stuck with the October polls. Borne of pragmatism, it has now come close to obligatory. A re ikwadiseng, re tlhophe ka October!