Says coalition partners pulled in different directions
SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
FRANCISTOWN: Divisions and lack of a coordinated campaign are to blame for the UDC’s loss in the 2019 general elections in which the movement flopped “even in winnable constituencies”, the Chairman of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), Motlatsi Molapise, has said.
Though the united opposition coalition of Botswana National Front (BNF), the Botswana People’s Party (BPP) and the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) registered a slight increase in its popular vote from 30.1 percent to 35.1 percent, it failed dismally because everything pointed to toppling the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) from power before the elections. Instead, Molapise noted, the BDP also increased its popular vote from 46.7 in the last general elections to 48.7 percent.
Speaking to the Botswana Gazette in an interview after announcing his retirement from active politics, Molapise said the UDC failed because its partners did not work as a coherent entity “even in winnable constituencies”. Instead, the partners did each other in by running discordant campaigns. “The partners were pulling in different directions, therefore confusing voters,” Molapise said.
“But the UDC is a good project that has the potential to free Batswana from BDP misrule. My concern the UDC is suffocated by lot of issues that I am not in a position to share yet. But going forward these issues will have to be addressed if the movement should hope to replace the BDP in power. Losing is not an indication that the coalition is useless because it has to be noted that there are also lot of positives.”