Khama optimistic before poll
Gaborone – Botswana President Ian Khama was on Thursday optimistic of a win in parliamentary polls expected to pose the greatest challenge yet to his ruling party which has been rent by factionalism.
“I am cautiously optimistic,” Khama told AFP on the sidelines of a rally in the capital’s oldest suburb Naledi, a day before elections are to be held in Africa’s most stable and longest running democracy.
The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has had a difficult campaign as rifts between party factions erupted in a bitter public spat when Khama suspended his party’s secretary general Gomolemo Motswaledi.
“These problems (factionalism) have been with us for the last 20 years. I am just determined to make sure we don’t go another 20 years with the same problems,” said Khama.
“That is why I decided that we must take a stand against any unruly elements in the party that promotes factionalism.”
Despite the party rifts and criticism over Khama’s authoritarian leadership style, the BDP is expected to easily win the parliamentary elections, handing Khama the presidency, in the face of a weak and equally fractured opposition.
The BDP has been in power since independence in 1966. In its four decades of democracy the diamond-rich nation has become Africa’s success story, with one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Seven parties and 15 independent candidates are contesting the elections, with only the BDP, the main opposition Botswana National Front and smaller Botswana Congress Party in the presidential race.