FRANCISTOWN: After his second successive loss at the hands of a Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) candidate in Francistown East constituency, Botswana Congress Party (BCP) parliamentary candidate Morgan Moseki has hit out at the media, accusing it launching a smear campaign against the BCP ahead of the general elections.
Moseki suffered the same fate as he did in 2009 when he lost to Phandu Skelemani with a slight margin as he once again lost to BDP’s Buti Billy through a narrow 3818 to 3573 votes. Theresa Mmolawa trailed them with 1067 votes. In an interview with The Botswana Gazette over the weekend, Moseki blamed the media for launching a smear campaign against the BCP after it resolved to pull out of the opposition cooperation.
“The smear campaign launched by the media against BCP contributed to our loss. BCP used to be the darling of Botswana politics until we became a target of media attacks. We were unfairly punished for pulling out of the umbrella because we believed that negotiations had collapsed. People must understand that we pulled out after the talks collapsed,” he said.
Meanwhile BCP also lost all the parliamentary seats in Francistown; Francistown South and Francistsown West.
Francistown west
The BCP’s Dr Habaudi Hobona won the constituency after the bye-elections that followed the demise of Member of Parliament Tshelang Masisi. However, Dr Hobona failed to defend her seat over the weekend and became the first MP to record the shortest stint in parliament. She lost to BDP’s Ignatious Moswaane by 5305 to 3461 votes. Shathiso Tambula of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) recorded 950 votes while independent candidate Joseph Mabutho clocked 157 votes.
Francistown South
It was a contentious constituency that was closely fought by UDC’s Wynter Mmolotsi, BDP’s Sylvia Muzila and BCP’s Vain Mamela. Mmolotsi won the constituency in 2009 under the BDP and later defected to BMD. President Ian Khama practically camped in the constituency to rally support fro Muzila, in the process urging the electorates to shun Mmolotsi because he was indisciplined and il-mannered. However, the Khama magic failed to work in Francistown South as Mmolotsi won comfortably with 5261 votes, followed by Muzila with 3289 and Mamela with 1511.