BCP primary elections postponed

Gasebalwe Seretse | Friday November 15, 2013 17:46

'The Palapye people failed to submit their voters' roll on time and that is what caused the delay so the elections have been postponed for a week,' Lucas said, adding that in other constituencies north of Dibete, the elections will go ahead as planned.

He further said that he suspected the cause of the delay is due to the fact that there are four new wards in the constituency, which meant that new potential voters had to be registered first.

Lucas further pointed out that the primaries for Francistown West have also been postponed due to the by-elections that are expected soon in the city.

It is not the first time that Molosiwa and Olesitse face off as in 1999, the two battled it out with then Botswana Democratic Party's (BDP) Boyce Sebetela, who eventually won.

At that time, Molosiwa contested under the Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) ticket while Olesitse represented the BCP.

When the then Palapye Member of Parliament (MP) Sebetela left politics in 2008, Molosiwa contested the BCP primary elections against Olesitse and lost to the aged politician. The following year during the general elections, Olesitse got a free run as the BCP was not ready for another gruelling contest between the two politicians. Olesitse is a veteran in opposition politics who has repeatedly tried to win the hearts of the people of Palapye for close to three decades but to no avail. 

The town is a BDP stronghold.

Interestingly in 2008, the veteran was confident of a win to such an extent that he made public pronouncements to that effect but lost to the incumbent, Moiseraela Goya of the BDP the following year.

Olesitse was once one of those people who were in the inner-circle of the late, Dr Kenneth Koma of the Botswana National Front (BNF) before jumping ship to join the BCP after its formation in 1998. Molosiwa who is a respected geologist and hydrologist has been active in politics since the mid-90s. He was instrumental in the formation of two political movements in the country namely, Bosele Action Party and BAM. Interestingly, Molosiwa believes that whoever wins the BCP primaries can possibly win the constituency next year.

'Palapye is winnable depending on how well we play our cards,' he told Mmegi in an earlier interview.