BFA campaigns reach boiling point
Mqondisi Dube | Saturday June 29, 2024 06:00
Expression of interest for candidates intending to contest in the elections closed this week Tuesday. Former BFA vice president, Tariq Babitseng and current first vice president, Masego Ntshingane, confirmed they had submitted their papers to contest. Incumbent, Maclean Letshwiti is expected to seek a third term. "Yes, I’m contesting for the BFA presidency. Yes, I have submitted my name as candidate number one for BFA president,” Babitseng said yesterday. Ntshingane said he would respect the electoral process and therefore declined to comment. The BFA Elections Committee will now begin the vetting process with the announcement of the final list of candidates scheduled for July 29. But Babitseng wants Letshwiti disqualified from the process.
“I don’t foresee any challenges because if all things being equal, the current president should not be able to contest since he has reached the limit both of term and age. But we have since picked up that they have extended the term of office and age to suit him without going through the right process,” he said.
“No General Assembly or NEC (National Executive Committee) has ever discussed or deliberated on the matter. So if things are equal and we look at the law, there should not be any challenge,” he added. To add a twist to the tale, the Registrar of Societies this week wrote to the BFA requesting the association to demonstrate that the constitution was not illegally altered in June 2021. Ofentse Gojamang from the Registrar of Societies wrote a letter to the BFA CEO on Monday, asking the BFA to "demonstrate" that the constitution was not illegally altered in 2021. "We are in receipt of a complaint from some of your members who also state to be participants/delegates in all the general assemblies of the Botswana Football Association (BFA) supreme body, indicating that your constitution dated 25th June 2021, stamped by the Registrar of Societies carries a number of changes that were never discussed and voted upon at the Botswana Football Association General Assembly," the letter reads.
"This, therefore, means that in their view, the constitution was amended without following due process and [as] such unlawful and somewhat fraudulent. This communication therefore serves to request that you demonstrate that the constitution was constitutionally and lawfully amended, failing which the constitution will be null and void," Gojamang said. BFA CEO, Mfolo Mfolo said they will respond to the Registrar of Societies. “We have just received the letter and studying it. We will respond to the correspondence,” Mfolo said. The complainants argue that the age limit to contest for the BFA presidency was increased from 70 to 75 while the term limits were increased to three, changes which critics argue, were meant to favour Letshwiti.