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Botswana: Clean Sweep
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Ryder Gabathuse
Palapye
The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has retained Palapye constituency in a pulsating by-election that saw the BDP candidate, Moiseraele Master Goya, winning by a margin of 463 votes. Goya, BDP's new kid on the political block, had a doubtful start.
The odds were stacked against him with some BDP members associated with primary elections twice losers, Health Minister Professor Sheila Tlou, and the youthful Isaac Maforaga, threatening not to vote for him.
The 46-year-old banker proved his mettle as he garnered a larger share of about 1,942 votes, ahead of the veteran Botswana Congress Party (BCP), James Olesitse who was voted by 1,456 people and the Botswana National Front (BNF)'s 72-year-old Sentsho Malatsi who came third with only 135 votes.
About 24 ballot papers were spoiled as part of the 3,557 people who voted in the weekend by-election. About 9500 people were eligible to vote in the weekend by-election.
Although it was earlier feared that very few people would vote, a lot of people appreciated the numbers that turned up more so that it was rainy and the by-election came at a time when people were out in the fields tending their crops. There were 33 polling stations across the constituency.
Throughout the by-election, the situation was very tense with the opposition BCP candidate, Olesitse, tipped to win with a possible 'small margin'. In particular, he was tipped to benefit from the BDP 'divisions'.
This apparently left the BDP faithful loyal to Goya panic-stricken for fear that their own people had "deserted' them on the hour of need.
For the better part of the day, the majority of the polling stations were almost empty, sparking fears for the worst. The lowest turn out was registered at the polling stations of Patikwane with four votes, Kgaswe primary school, four votes followed by Bonwakathako and Molapowadipitse polling stations with five votes each.
The highest polling station was the Sebeso polling station, which registered 275 votes followed by Khurumela Kgotla with 262 votes. Politicians gathered solace from the fact that the turn out for by-elections is normally low.
But when it finally turned out after the final count was done around 0430 hours yesterday that Goya had won, his supporters branded him a 'survivor' who had beaten the odds. His supporters who waited anxiously outside the Rural Administrative Centre (RAC) where the counting was done broke into song, dance and ululations for their man.
After his election, the visibly excited Goya said: "I am going to resign from my job as a banker on Monday. My priorities as an MP for Palapye are to focus on development projects which could have been implemented during National Development Plan Nine and to help destitutes in the area".
BCP's campaign manager, Moncho Moncho blamed the issue of voter registration cards to have caused problems for them. "We took a lot of time helping people to obtain duplicates of these cards and we unfortunately lost out valuable time in the process," said the worried Moncho.
He added that his party was under-resourced in overall. "I believe we have done well in a known BDP stronghold and we have covered a lot of ground for the future," he declared with optimism.
BNF campaign manager, Eitlhopha Mokeresete, asserted that the weekend results reflect that "we did what we could afford". The party's main undoing was its late coming into the race and fielding an aged candidate. His party did not expect the low votes that they had recorded. To him the BNF is not out. "We will work very hard to show our presence in the area more so that we will be contesting the 2009 general election," explained Mokeresete.
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Serowe/Palapye acting District Officer, Mooketsi Lesetedi who was the Palapye returning officer, declared the elections 'free and fair' in the absence of complaints from the parties and their polling agents. He was worried that having registered 24 spoiled votes in the weekend elections was a sign of challenges "in further educating the people so that the number of spoiled votes could be avoided completely".
Meanwhile, the BDP won two council ward by-elections in Mokwena ward, Serowe South constituency and Bodibeng-Bothatogo ward in Ngamiland. In Mokwena, the BDP's Atamelang Thaga won the council seat after garnering 194 votes to BNF's Tshireletso Koee who got 111 votes and BCP's Aaron Manyala coming third with 10 votes.
In the Bodibeng-Bothatogo ward, BDP's Managoba Managoba got 357 votes to emerge victorious followed by BNF's, Korry Sehularo who was elected by 283 people whilst Guston Tuvare of the BAM came third with 192 votes.
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| Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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