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Botswana: BNF MPs Back Merafhe
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
3 April 2008
Posted to the web 3 April 2008
Tshireletso Motlogelwa
At least three MPs from the main opposition party, the Botswana National Front (BNF) voted Mompati Merafhe as Vice President on Tuesday, Mmegi has established.
The former Foreign Affairs Minister got 48 votes with six MPs abstaining. Two votes were spoilt. The sole Botswana Congress Party (MP) Dumelang Saleshando indicates that he abstained. If none of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (MPs) abstained, then five BNF MPs did.
If the two 'spoilt' votes were from the opposition, then that means four MPs from the opposition voted for Merafhe. It may be possible, although highly unlikely that the two spoilt votes came from BDP in which case up to six opposition MPs may have backed Merafhe. BNF MPs gave contradictory accounts of why there was a discrepancy in the voting. Most MPs maintain that at their caucus prior to the vote, BNF president Otsweletse Moupo told them that he had met with the new president Ian Khama who informed him that he had chosen Merafhe as his VP. Moupo reportedly said given that Merafhe is obviously going to get overwhelming support from the BDP majority, then the vote in parliament did not matter. "He therefore said MPs could vote with their conscience," said one MP.
However Moupo said at a press conference yesterday that the BNF caucus agreed that MPs should abstain from the vote. "It was a position a majority of us held so I would say it was what we agreed," he said. He added that it was regrettable that BNF MPs voted for Merafhe. "It is regrettable that MPs went ahead and voted for Merafhe. It is impossible to fathom how an MP would go against the caucus on an issue on which the party has a position," he said.
However Kgatleng East MP Isaac Mabiletsa maintains that the BNF leadership said that because the party does not have the numbers to overturn what the BDP was going to do, the MPs were free to vote according to their conscience.
"Politics is a game of numbers. It does not help you to insist on a particular position even when you see that you cannot get the necessary numbers to have your way," said Mabiletsa.
Gaborone West South MP, Robert Molefhabangwe and his Lobatse Nehemiah Modubule counterpart seem to corroborate what Mabiletsa said, although they differ with him on other issues. "If you are going to say people should vote using their conscience what are you saying about the party position which is very clear on automatic succession?" asks Molefhabangwe.
Modubule says it is shameful that a BNF MP can endorse automatic succession. Gaborone South MP Akanyang Magama said he could not vote for Merafhe. "After all I was the MP who tabled a motion asking for this provision (automatic succession) to be abolished".
Molefhabangwe and Mabiletsa would not say how they voted. But Magama and Moupo said they abstained while Modubule spoilt his vote deliberately. Taking into account Saleshando's one 'abstain vote' then, it is reasonable to conclude that four BNF MPs endorsed Merafhe's candidacy.
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Meanwhile Moupo reiterated yesterday the BNF's position against automatic succession. "Automatic succession denies people the right to elect their own leader, and therefore does not promote democratic principles. It gives too much power to one individual (the president) and is therefore undemocratic and it stifles competition and ambition," he said.
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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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