Botswana counted votes Thursday from tightly contested elections in which the ruling party headed by President Mokgweetsi Masisi is seeking to extend its six-decade grip on power amid rising calls for change.The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has voiced confidence it will retain power in the diamond-rich nation after Wednesday’s parliamentary vote, which also determines who will be the next president. But early results in the separate local council election indicated a strong performance by the left-leaning Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), in what was seen as a possible trend for the parliamentary outcome.Election authorities aim to release results later in the day.Voting was orderly in a country proud of a democratic tradition introduced on independence from Britain in 1966, making it the oldest democracy in the region even though it has always been governed by the BDP.Under Botswana’s first-past-the-post system, the first party to take 31 of the 61 parliamentary seats will be declared the winner and install its candidate as president.Masisi, 63, was elected in 2019 when the BDP won 52 percent of ballots and said after voting Wednesday that “victory is certain” for his second term. He is challenged by UDC leader Duma Boko, a 54-year-old human rights lawyer; Dumelang Saleshando, 53, from the social democratic Botswana Congress Party (BCP); and the populist Botswana Patriotic Front’s (BPF) Mephato Reatile, 57. A major concern for the more than one million registered voters is the unemployment rate of 27 percent, with younger people most affected, and a slump in the economy due in part to weakened diamond sales, Botswana’s single biggest revenue earner.There have also been allegations of government corruption, nepotism and mismanagement, while the gap between the rich and poor is one of the largest in the world, according to the World Bank.In 2023, growth fell to 2.7 percent from 5.5 percent a year earlier, the International Monetary Fund said. It is projected to slump to one percent in 2024.”We need change of governance in our country,” said self-employed Ookeditse Letshwenyo, 23, ahead of voting day.”Since our independence, we’ve been ruled by the same people, with the same mindset, with the same goals. Maybe if things can change, there will be a better government in our country.”- Priorities -The UDC complained of irregularities on voting day in a similar scenario to the 2019 election when it attempted to have the results thrown out but its case was dismissed in court.”Our fear is that we are going to have another rigged election just as in 2019,” head of a UDC monitoring group Mike Keakopa said.The new government will need to focus on weaning the country off its diamond dependency, analysts said.”The first priority for the next government or president would be to stabilise the economy, create a degree of strategic certainty in the mining sector,” independent political commentator Olopeng Rabasimane said.”The second has to be employment generation, especially for young people. The third one would be diversification of the economy away from dependency on diamonds,” he said.Botswana should boost technology, tourism and agriculture, commentator for the Sunday Standard newspaper Victor Baatweng said.The country is a beef exporter and also a destination for high-end safari tourism, with the Okavango Delta in the north a UNESCO-listed heritage site.
