Is Khama speaking for himself?

| Wednesday January 29, 2014 15:27

His argument is that the SADC region has failed to act against fraudulent victors in the Zimbabwean poll of July 2013 that returned Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF to power.  Zimbabwe went to those elections five years after ZANU PF and the country’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had formed a troubled Government of National Unity following unremitting violence and bloodletting that erupted in the run-up to a re-run of presidential elections in 2008. Former Vice President Mompati Merafhe returned from Zimbabwe post the 2013 poll and characterised the exercise as nothing but a circus. The results, he said, should be treated accordingly. 

A few days later, the government distanced itself from Merafhe’s conclusions and advanced the view that the Zim elections had been free but not fair. No audit was therefore necessary, it concluded, openly controverting – even excoriating – Merafhe, who had been a member of the government’s observer mission.  It was a moment to savour solidarity with the SADC region whose observer mission had also come to the conclusion of free but not fair, citing a raft of irregularities.

We do agree that the environment under which elections are held is a fundament that will have a bearing on the results. It is agreed by all who uphold democracy that elections must be held under a free, fair and equitable atmosphere, if the result should be credible.  However, it is disturbing – in this day and age when the world is defined by a comity of nations that work as a multi-lateral force – for any country, most of all Botswana, to unilaterally decide that it will no longer  take part in observer missions in a region in which it is located.

Records are full of recommendations from election observer missions in Botswana who have also critiqued our elections as free but not fair, citing the uneven playing ground and lack of political party funding, which are among stated reforms that have been rejected by the Botswana Democratic Party government. As a matter of fact, there is a report that contains more than 20 recommendations from the 2009 elections that the government has ignored. Right now, the Independent Electoral Commission is unable to advertise this year as an election year while there are no arrangements for people with disabilities to vote, among a host of problems that revolve around IEC’s being broke because such a situation suits Domkrag.

Which brings us to question – the motive behind Khama’s astonishing announcement about withdrawing Botswana from participation in observer missions because, as he put it, more countries might in future copy the Zimbabwean example after no one paid heed to his government’s findings. Is Khama, we want to know, speaking for himself? Is he suggesting that he will remain in power by hook or crook?

                                                          Today's thought

                    'People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.'

 

                                                  –Alan Moore, V for Vendetta