Saleshando presents Democratic Alert
Dumelang Saleshando | Monday December 9, 2013 14:22
This democracy alert serves to further put into focus the insufficiencies of Botswana’s democracy as we move closer to the 2014 general elections. It also serves to make proposals for reforms in the electoral laws and system to make them more inclusive, fair and democratic.
The BCP believes that if these issues are not addressed as a matter of urgency, Botswana’s democratic credentials will continue to diminish. Botswana has been hailed as a shining example of democracy and a beacon of hope on the African continent. While this may have been true at the time when the continent was dominated by military and minority repressive regimes, this is no longer the case as Botswana has been overtaken by new. The Botswana Congress Party views Botswana’s democracy as deficient and out of step with what is expected in a modern day liberal democracy. Botswana conducts generally free elections every five years. It has a multi-party system that allows the people to vote a political party of their choice.
Political parties and theirsupporters can go about their campaigns without harassment by state agents. On Election Day there is transparency in the way counting is conducted. However, elections in Botswana are not fair because the uneven playing field, that is heavily skewed to benefit the ruling party.
Elections in Botswana are organised and run by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The IEC is accountable to the President who is an interested political player in any election. The Secretary of the IEC has been reduced to the level of Permanent Secretary and therefore reports to the Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP). That means the PSP also has powers to instruct and discipline the Secretary of the IEC for non-compliance. The office of the President has always maintained control over the IEC through the PSP. In fact the IEC has never been granted the full independence accorded to similar bodies that conduct elections the world over. Even the budget of the IEC falls under the Office of the President. The setting of the elections date is the sole prerogative of the president after receiving a report from the IEC that it is has done all the preparations for the conduct of elections. When there is a local government bye-election the date for the election is set by the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development.
To restore normalcy in the election process, since the IEC is the body vested with the powers to conduct elections, it must be allowed full control over all aspects of the elections process. When the IEC was established under the constitution, the law was not amended to transfer the power and functions of delimitation to the IEC as it should have been the case. The JSC has its own mandate and functions and must be left to deal with those, whereas the IEC should deal with all aspects falling within the remit of electioneering.
The BCP as well as other opposition political parties have consistently called for political party funding to level the political playing field. The ruling party does not only benefit from private secret donations from the business community but also uses state resources to campaign. In Botswana, the kgotla is the oldest political institution which has served as a consultative forum. Every village has a kgotla where constituents are consulted about government policies and developments in their areas. Public servants, local councilors, ministers as well as the state president use the kgotla to disseminate information. In recent years the kgotla is increasingly being used by the ruling party to promote their party programs and policies. Day in and day out the public is fed with unbridled messages which feeds into the subliminal minds of the populace that the policies of the ruling party are good. The same forum is not accorded to opposition parties unless the person is an incumbent MP or councilor of the area.
The kgotla is not available for use by opposition parties to promote their alternative policies. To maintain it as its sole bastion, BDP MP’s hide under the disguise that the kgotla should not be politicised yet they use the same forum to promote their own policies of a political nature. This is hypocritical. In 2012, the President of the BCP, who was the Official Leader of Opposition at the time, was denied the right to address kgotla meetings in his capacity as leader of opposition to sensitise Batswana on the role of office of the leader of opposition. The office of the president had a hand in changing the parliamentary privileges handbook to restrain the leader of opposition from addressing kgotla meetings.
It is a given that a free and independent media is the cornerstone of any democracy. A free and independent media helps promote political debate and keeps the government accountable to an informed citizenry. In Botswana, BTV, Radio Botswana and the Daily News are manipulated by the BDP to report in its favour. The state media has been reduced to a marketing and public relations organ of the ruling BDP. Political parties do not have equal access to state media. The state media is a resource used by the BDP to its sole advantage. At times the ruling party disseminates propaganda under the guise of objective public information by the government.
The BDP liberally uses the state media to publicise their political activities and generally to use the state media to promote themselves in a positive light while they use the same state media to portray the opposition parties in a negative way. It can often be observed how camera tricks are employed to give the impression that opposition party rallies are poorly attended while on the other hand portraying the impression that BDP rallies are well attended. BDP political events are extensively covered giving them a large amount of coverage. During news time their party events are given an extended time of coverage more than other news worthy stories. Every day the BTV extensively covers one person, the president. He is portrayed as a good and benevolent person who liberally hands out blankets, chairs, sweets and other goodies to the needy.
Botswana Congress Party has always called for the state broadcaster to be transformed into a public broadcaster with an independent board and the setting up of independent committees which govern broadcasting standards. We believe that this will prevent the use of the state media for political expediency by any governing party. For example the historic public sector strike of 2011 was not covered by the state media while the government point of view was extensively given coverage which put the unions in a bad light. The biased state media is the main source of the unfairness of elections in Botswana. Since the IEC is dependent on government it is incapable of guaranteeing free and fair elections. The BOCRA law which regulates the media in Botswana has no mandate to keep the state media which reaches the majority of Batswana in check.
The Francistown west bye election scandal will forever remain a dark moment in the electoral history of this country. This scandal has helped reveal the true character of the BDP and the extent to which it is prepared to abuse electoral laws and the powerful office of the President to gain an unfair advantage over other political parties and undermine the rule of law. We hereunder chronicle events that led to this electoral scandal; In early 2013, the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Francistown West, Tshelang Masisi passed on. His demise necessitated a bye election in that constituency.
A writ of election was duly issued and nominations for the parliamentary candidates were scheduled for November 1st, 2013 and the polling day was set for November 23rd, 2013.
As the date for nominations drew nearer, a serious dispute arose within the ruling BDP between the winner of their primary election and the loser. The loser of the primary election did not accept results contending that the election was replete with gross irregularities. On the eve of the nominations, the loser successful obtained a court order interdicting and restraining the BDP to submit the name of the winner of its disputed primary election or any of its members for nomination to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) before the loser’s appeal is dealt with by the BDP. The court order was served on the IEC and it declined to accept any nomination from the BDP citing the operation of the order of court. When nominations closed, only four candidates stood nominated to contest the bye election scheduled for November 23rd, 2013.
The BDP filed an urgent application with the High Court challenging the decision of the IEC not to accept the nomination of its candidate for the bye election but lost with costs. The court ruled that the IEC was right to decline or to accept the BDP nomination when there was a court order barring them from nominating a candidate. Had the IEC accepted the BDP nomination, it would have been guilty of contempt of court. The BDP lodged another case before a different judge in which it sought to discharge an interim order which had prevented them from nominating a candidate until they have given the loser of their primary election a fair hearing. Once again, the BDP lost the case with costs and the court confirmed the interim order. The BDP lost two other related court cases before other judges of the High court. The BDP lodged an appeal of some of this matter and one of the appeals will be heard on December 6th, 2013.
With just under 48 hours remaining before the polling date, November 23rd, 2013, the office of the president issued a press release to the effect that the polling date has been postponed to January 25th, 2014 by the Acting President Hon P.H.K Kedikilwe, acting in terms of powers conferred upon him by the Electoral Act. The Acting President gave two reasons for postponing the poll, namely that he has been petitioned by a large majority of Francistown West voters who protested that they are being disenfranchised by the fact that their preferred BDP candidate has been barred from taking part in the bye election. The protesters urged the Acting president to rescind the writ and issue a new one so that their candidate may have the opportunity to be nominated. Secondly, the President maintained that it was necessary for the poll date to be postponed to allow the court of appeal to adjudicate over the BDP appeals. It should be noted that the President has powers to postpone a polling date if it is in the public interest to do so. The president used a proclamation that was published in the gazette on November 22nd, 2013, just less than 24 hours before the polling date.
The BCP and other opposition parties whose candidates were duly nominated approached court on urgency seeking to set aside the Proclamation postponing the election and compelling the IEC to continue with the polls as initially scheduled. The BCP contended that in coming up with the proclamation; the President was not acting in the public interest but was acting in the interest of narrow and selfish sectarian BDP interests. The court battles which were the basis for the proclamation were entirely internal BDP bickering which should not disturb a national event such as the bye election.
The BCP lost the case with costs. The judges took the view that the Presidential Proclamation cannot be challenged at law. Following the BCP loss of the case, it emerged that only 1,160 people allegedly petitioned the President while almost 11,920 were registered to vote in the constituency. This shows that the alleged petitioners were a small minority who did not even reach 10 % of registered voters of Francistown West.
It has since come to light that many of the alleged petitioners knew nothing about the petition raising fears that the petition was a massive fraud. It was confirmed that indeed the alleged petition was nothing but a fraud following the discovery that one of the alleged petitioners who had signed the petition died some three years ago. The BCP is furthering its investigations on the fraudulent petition with a view to reporting a case of fraud with the relevant police station. It appears that all the names of the petitioners were hand written by one or two persons and their signatures are very similar. In this regard, the BCP is working round the clock to have a hand writing expert examine the petition with a view to ascertaining the authenticity of the petitioners.
The BCP maintains that the proclamation that postponed the bye election is a big fraud as it was based on a fraudulent petition. The people who came up with this fraudulent petition should be investigated, charged and be prosecuted. The BCP shall insist on a thorough investigation and if the BDP and its candidate is found to have had a hand in this fraud, we shall insist on its candidate being prosecuted for possible electoral fraud and be disqualified from contesting. The BCP believes that the available facts clearly indicate that the BDP and its candidate may be implicated in this fraud.
The BDP has demonstrated that it is prepared to stoop so low in its quest to win an election. The Proclamation was effectively used to undermine the judiciary and subvert the rule of law. For a government that never shies away from condemning the manner in which other countries conduct their affair and particularly matters pertaining to elections, the President should be embarrassed by the abuse his government sanctioned using dead people’s names to undermine judgments of the High Court.