Diamond-rich Botswana went to the polls Wednesday, with voters concerned about high unemployment and an economic slump as the ruling party seeks to extend its nearly six decades in power and hand President Mokgweetsi Masisi a second term.Some of the one million registered voters queued for several hours before polling stations opened in a country that prides itself on being southern Africa’s oldest democracy but where the same party has been in power since independence in 1966.”It is my time to voice my opinion. I can’t wait,” said Lone Kobe, 38, who had been sitting outside a polling booth since 3:15 am.Kobe, who created her own work when she could not find a job, said she was voting to change a system dominated by the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that she believes benefits only a section of the country’s 2.6 million people.”We are seeing a percentage of the population enjoying the benefits. We are just the spectators, like we are watching a movie,” she said.Botswana’s vast diamond reserves, discovered just after independence from Britain, drove growth and development, lifting its people out of extreme poverty.But the country today ranks as one of the most unequal in the world, with three-fifths of financial assets held by the richest 10 percent, according to a 2022 World Bank report.Masisi’s first five-year term has seen unemployment rise to 27 percent, with younger people most affected, and a downturn in growth partly linked to weakened diamond sales. The government has also faced allegations of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement.An energetic Masisi, 63, held a final campaign rally with about 400 cheering supporters in the capital late Tuesday, saying he wanted to use his second term “to polish” what he started in his first five years.He cast his vote in his home village of Moshupa, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of Gaborone.At the same small polling station, unemployed Mompati Seekano, 57, said: “The BDP government has done great things for this country. President Masisi should be granted a second term.”But first-time voter Khumo Mase, 21, said many young people had decided not to vote. “They think your vote does not matter because the system is rigged,” she said. The opposition is also “inconsistent”, she added. “We only hear about them at election time but the ruling party always shows it is there.”- Fractured opposition – Counting is due to start in the hours after polling stations close at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) Wednesday, with results due late the following day.With 61 seats up for grabs in parliament, Botswana’s first-past-the-post system means the first party to take 31 seats will be declared the winner and install its candidate as president. Masisi was elected in 2019 with around 52 percent of the vote.While the party is not expected to fare much better this time, the opposition is fractured and some commentators have raised the prospect of a hung parliament for the first time.The main opposition alliance, the left-leaning Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) led by 54-year-old human rights lawyer, Duma Boko, lost two key members in the run-up to the election.After quitting, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) each fielded their own presidential candidates.The surprise return of previous president Ian Khama from three years of self-exile to campaign against Masisi added energy to the opposition but analysts said his influence was limited to a few districts.Opposition groups have been critical of the Independent Electoral Commission’s organisation of the polls, including for not sharing a digital version of the voter roll and a shortage of ballot papers in early voting.
