The colossal fake that postponed an election
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday December 2, 2013 15:09
Mmegi investigations have revealed how some people named in the petition were not even aware that there was a by-election. Asked if they had registered for elections in Francistown West, they responded by wanting to know where this publication had gotten their full names and identity numbers from. Others said their relatives had asked for their names to form part of the petition to Khama.
Some Omang (identity) numbers were wrong, and in some instances people shared the same signature. Mmegi noted that in the petition, some of the Omang numbers and house numbers were used as contact details. Most of the contacts used were not valid while the names of some of the protestors were written as contacts or house numbers.
Another irregularity is that some protestors on the so-called petition had no contact numbers, house numbers or signatures. Most pointedly, some of the protestors contacted by Mmegi said that they had not even registered to vote in the Francistown West by-election.
Before this sham began, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had barred the preferred candidate of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Ignatius Moswaane, from contesting the by-election after his party failed to comply with the court order by Justice Tshepo Motswagole for the party to give Moswaane’s rival – now clearly nemesis -Whyte Marobela, a hearing after he protested the results of the primary elections.
What did the BDP want by its November 19 petition?
In the petition that was purportedly signed by 1,161 people, the so-called petitioners asked President Ian Khama to exercise his executive powers, as prescribed by the Electoral Act, to consider a new writ of elections for the imminent Francistown West by-election that was then scheduled for November 23, 2013. They also wanted Khama to order the IEC to set a new date for nomination of candidates.
The purported petition stated that refusal by the IEC to consider Moswaane’s nomination was a serious mistake and had no legal basis. It also stated that a court order could not be used as an excuse to refuse their candidate’s name and called on Khama to disregard it. The so-called petitioners also called for nullification of the existing writ and called for a new date of nomination and another for the by-election to allow the ruling party to participate.
“Your Excellency, we are of the opinion that this mistake should not go uncorrected since it will set a concerning precedent in the fairness of our elections, hence we appeal for your intervention in this matter by calling on a New Writ of Elections to be issued,” the petition reads in part. Ever the democrat, Khama succumbed to the purported petition – albeit a hoax that many believe he must have been a part of right from the beginning – and had Vice President Ponatshego Kedikilwe characterise the response in a hurried proclamation as being in the public interest while he himself was on an official visit in South Africa.
In response to the dramatic – and unprecedented - turn of events, a combined force of the opposition Botswana Congress Party and the Umbrella for Democratic Change that is made up of the Botswana National Front, the Botswana Peoples Party and the Botswana Movement for Democracy went to court seeking nullification of the sudden proclamation, saying it was illegal and therefore invalid. The parties consequently asked the court to issue an order directing the IEC to proceed with the Francistown West by-election on November 23. They failed.
The Francistown West by-election fiasco arose after Marobela, the loser in the BDP primaries, successfully took the ruling party to court on the basis of irregularities. His contention was that BDP members had failed to vote for him in the primaries simply because they had no membership cards while certain party members of the Francistown West branch and others had hidden some membership cards.
However, on the day of the nominations, the BDP central committee dismissed Marobela’s case without giving him a hearing. Then CC wrote a letter to the IEC declaring Moswaane’s name as the BDP candidate but ignored the High Court order to grant Marobela a hearing.
A newspaper had quoted the chairman of the BDP’s electoral board, Parks Tafa, as saying if the court denied Moswaane a chance to stand, the party would appeal to the President to use his powers to ensure that its preferred candidate was accorded that opportunity.
Though President Khama did not call off the existing writ, he resorted to his executive powers and postponed the by-election. When the opposition took the matter to court, the decision was one that set a precedent by effectively declaring the President as being above the law.