• Urges regional structures to have consensus candidates
• Says primaries divide Domkrag and result in poor electoral performance
The Chairman of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Slumber Tsogwane, has added his weight to the BDP call for regional structures to settle for consensus candidates for the
next general elections. Tsogwane’s appeal comes a few weeks after the party’s Deputy Secretary General, Shaw Kgathi, reportedly urged the Francistown region of the BDP to consider settling for consensus candidates in order to prevent potentially divisive pro-
tests that often follow Bulela di Tswe, as Domkrag primaries are called.
Kgathi is said to have made the call to a meeting for Francistown councillors and
the regional leadership. Tsogwana, who is also the Vice President of Botswana, put the call on a higher footing over the weekend, asking a Francistown regional elective congress to consider adopting a resolution to suspend Bulela di Tswe in preference for a consen-
sus arrangement towards abolishing primaries for the BDP nationwide. “Bulela
di Tswe causes a lot of damage to the party’s general elections performance,”
he said. “I therefore urge this region and others to adopt a resolution to suspend the pri-
mary elections for determining the 2024 general election candidates. The coming
national council will be expecting to receive this resolution from different re-
gions.
Adoption of such a resolution could help the party to avoid internal fights and
help the party to go into the general elections united, therefore improving results.”
Tsogwane also called on regions to influence formulation of government
policies and programmes by submitting amendment resolutions to the BDP Na-
tional Council before its meeting in August. “As the members of the ruling party,
you have the potential to influence development of government policies and
programmes,” he said. “You have to influence these programmes and policies by
adopting resolutions on what you need.”