- Says co-opting of new members was unconstitutional
- Members had said co-opting marginalized one aspirant MP
SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
FRANCISTOWN: The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has declared recent co-opting of people into the party’s Francistown West branch committee unconstitutional and ordered it reversed, The Botswana Gazette has established.
However, the regional committee says it is unaware of the development. Nevertheless, the decision follows complaints by BDP members in the constituency that the co-opting of eight new members was not formally announced beforehand and was therefore unconstitutional.
Further, BDP members in the constituency had also complained that selection of the eight was done in order to advance the interests of one of two activists who are known to be interested in becoming parliamentary candidates in Botswana’s next general elections in 2024.
The protesters said if the selection was not reversed, they would not work with the new branch committee because doing so would amount to legitimizing it. They accused the regional leadership of influencing the selection in accordance with its bias against one of the two activists.
The BDP orders dissolution of the new committee and calls on the regional committee to normalize the situation in a letter that The Botswana Gazette is in possession of.
“On the basis of the co-option that was facilitated in the presence of BDP Regional Chairman Baemedi Medupi the party has resolved that the said committee members whose selection was facilitated on November 19 meeting be dissolved as it did not form the quorum and was chosen unconstitutionally as per Article 16-10 of the party constitution,” reads the letter from Tsholetsa House in part.
But the Deputy Chairman of the BDP Regional Committee, Khumongwana Maoto, says he is not aware of any such instructions from Tsholetsa House and has not seen any letter carrying such instructions. “As the regional committee, we are aware of the complaints from some democrats,” Maoto told The Botswana Gazette.
“But we have not made any final decision yet. We were supposed to meet last weekend but we did not. As for the letter you claim to have, I only hear about it from you.”