Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
22 August 2008
Gaborone — All the five Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) parliamentary hopefuls who protested primary election results have lost their appeals.
The party's Appeals Board, headed by attorney, Isaac Seloko, quashed all the protests due to failure to follow electoral procedures. The decision was endorsed at an emergency BDP Central Committee meeting on Wednesday evening.
BDP political and administration manager, Fidelis Molao, yesterday confirmed in an interview with Mmegi that all the five protests were dismissed because of failure to adhere to Bulela Ditswe rules and regulations. He said the Appeals Board did not even consider the merits of the cases once they (Appeals Board members) were convinced the petitioners had violated procedures.
The five BDP parliamentary hopefuls who protested the outcome of their constituency primary election results were: Thato Kwerepe of Ngami, Rakwadi Modipane of Kgatleng West, Lesang Magang and Reuben Mokopaina, both of Kweneng East. Contrary to earlier reports, it has since emerged that the Borolong BDP primary results protest in which one of the candidates, Freddy Ramodise, had filed a protest, was not actually filed with the Central Committee, but with the regional committee.
Administration manager, Molao, says the Appeals Board observed, among other things, that all the petitioners failed to furnish interested parties, their opponents, and election officers, with notice of protest, as Bulela Ditswe rules and regulations require.
Molao says the petitioners also failed to route their protests through regional committees, as the regulations require. He said the central committee is the highest body in the Party and can only listen to protests referred to it by other structures.
He told Mmegi that while other petitioners failed to give reasons why they bypassed the regional structures, Kwerepe of Ngami said that he feared taking his case to the region because it was being supervised by his opponent, who also happens to be the party secretary general (Jacob Nkate). However, the BDP central committee accepted its Appeals Board ruling that despite being the party secretary general, Nkate does not control regional structures as they are independently elected by regions and are not appointed by the secretary general or the central committee.
In the case of Modipane, of Kgatleng West, the board stated that the petitioner said he feared taking his appeal to the region because his opponent, Gilbert Mangole, was the regional chairman. However, the board said the BDP has clear rules and regulations, which state that in cases of conflict of interest the affected party will recuese himself from the case. "In any case, Mangole was the defendant in the case and there was no way he could sit and decide the outcome of Modipane's appeal," Molao told Mmegi at his office.
Molao also said the protesting Parties also failed to inform the election officers orally, right after the announcement of the results that they have the intention to appeal. He said the Bulela Ditswe rules require that a person should first notify the election officers orally, of their intention to protest the results, followed by a written submission within seven days, which is also copied to all affected parties.
Molao added that due to failure to follow laid down procedures; the petitions were thrown out without even considering the merits of the cases. "The rules and regulations must be strictly followed. If we deviate from procedures as laid down, we render the whole process untenable; we will be setting a precedent whereby Party regulations are broken to entertain unprocedural processes," he said.
The BDP official said his Party has already set a good precedent after adhering strictly to its Bulela Ditswe rules. " This was the second batch of Party Primary elections. We had few petitioners in the last primary elections who also failed to follow procedure when filing their protests. Those protests were determined strictly by way of following the rules, specifically clause 12 of Bulela Ditswe. We could not bend the rules. The Central Committee decision is final, so there is no other Party structure to appeal to", Molao said.
However at the time of going to press yesterday, Mmegi established that a number of petitioners were not yet aware of the outcome of the results and so could not comment when approached by this newspaper, saying they will comment only after they have seen the Central Committee report.
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