Lack of resources blamed for BPP low key primaries
Chakalisa Dube | Sunday May 12, 2024 22:05
The lack of interest is notable in candidacies for parliamentary positions for the 2024 General Election. The party completed the vetting process of aspiring candidates for the October Election this week and will now go for the primaries billed for this weekend.
The BPP is a founding affiliate of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), an opposition coalition. Out of six constituencies that have been allocated to the party by the UDC, parliamentary primaries will only be held in one constituency. The BPP was allocated Tati East, Tati West, Francistown East, Francistown West, Kgatleng East and Shashe West.Forty-one candidates have been vetted in to contest the primaries under the BPF banner. In an interview, the party Secretary General Tiroyaone Ntsima blamed lack of enthusiasm in the party primaries to lack of resources.
“What we have established is that some of our members do not have enough resources that they can channel to politics. Some of the wards and constituencies we have been allocated are from non-urban areas. By nature, people from non-urban areas do not have enough resources that they could commit to politics,” said Ntsima. Ntsima noted that lack of enthusiasm in the party primaries also have its own merits. He stated that it will be easy to manage the aftermath of the primaries when there is a lesser number of candidates.
For parliamentary positions (those not going for primaries), Ignatius Moswaane has been vetted in to contest the general elections in Francistown West, while Ntsima will contest Francistown East. Trade unionist Justin Hunyepa will contest Tati West while Nono Kgafela-Mokoka will represent the BPP in Kgatleng East. Alfred Mashungwa will contest Shashe West.
Long time BPP activist Thomas Mpenya will battle it out with Peter Kuchwe to determine the party’s candidate for Tati East. Kuchwe who is a former additional member for the BPP central committee recently returned to active politics. He was expelled by the BPP five years ago, but indications suggest that influential members have decided to welcome him back.
Apart from Kuche and Mpenya all the candidates for the parliamentary primaries are those who defected from other opposition parties and the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) after the 2019 General Election.
“All the candidates that have applied have been vetted in by the central committee. They met all the necessary requirements for one to contest the party primaries,” Ntsima told Mmegi.
There were reports that Moswaane and some of his councilors will be vetted out for breaching some party produces, most notably campaigning out of turn.
Meanwhile, Ntsima has disclosed that party president and UDC chairperson Motlatsi Molapise will not contest this year’s General Election. Molapise contested the 2019 council general election at Boikhutso ward and lost. There is a swelling narrative that he will finally quit active politics after the October polls.