- Says move is meant to curb divisions
- Candidates to emerge from the floor
SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
The Alliance for Progressive (AP) has abolished lobby groups and their activities aimed at its inaugural elective congress that will take place over the President’s Day long weekend in Francistown.
The Secretary General of the AP, Dr Phenyo Butale, says the move is meant to pre-empt the emergence of divisions and factions in the AP. “We have long issued a writ and those interested in running for the party positions will be allowed to declare from the floor,” Butale told The Botswana Gazette in an interview.
“We abolished lobby groups because we want the candidates to base the campaigns on the vision of the party rather on what the lobby groups want. The lobby groups are all about a group of people, not the party’s vision. Besides, lobby groups have the potential to turn into permanent factions after the congress and may end up dividing the party.”
It is not yet clear if there will be new candidates for the positions of president, vice president and secretary general.
The elective congress is the first one for the AP and comes four years after the party was formed in 2018 as a breakaway from the Botswana Movement Democracy (BMD).