With the gaze of the international community fixed on next week’s presidential election in the United States, little attention has been paid to the fact that Botswana is also scheduled to go to the polls this weekend.
The fact that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is widely expected to win the October 30 vote has contributed to the low-key coverage of the campaign beyond the country’s borders — as has Botswana’s economic success.
Classified as one of the poorest countries in the world at independence in 1966, Botswana has experienced sustained economic growth over the past three decades — thanks largely to diamond exports (the country is now the world’s leading exporter of uncut diamonds).
This growth has underpinned political stability in the country, although unemployment, officially put at 20%, remains a problem.
Several opposition parties will join the BDP in contesting 56 of 57 parliamentary seats (Vice-President Ian Khama, the son of Botswana’s first president — Seretse Khama — is the unopposed BDP candidate in the Serowe North constituency).
However, only six of these groups are thought to have a chance at the polls.
The BDP’s principal challenge comes from the Botswana National Front (BNF), which is in alliance with the Botswana People’s Party and the Botswana Alliance Movement.
The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) is also hoping to make its mark on Saturday. However, the fragmentation of the opposition will probably count against it in the poll — particularly as Botswana uses the Westminster ”first past the post” electoral system.
This ensures that parliamentary positions are allocated to those who win these seats — rather than according to the percentage of the national vote that a party manages to garner.
In the 1999 election, the BDP — which has ruled Botswana since independence — won 33 of the 40 seats on offer with only 54,34% of the total vote. The number of parliamentary positions was increased after 1999 to reflect population growth.
The opposition has criticised the government for refusing to agree to the introduction of proportional representation in Botswana, and to the funding of political parties.
”The Botswana elections are not fair and the political playing field is far from level,” says BNF official Elmon Tafa.
However, a number of electoral reforms were adopted after the 1999 election, such as the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18, the formation of an independent electoral commission to run polls and the introduction of a process that allows Batswana outside the country to take part in elections.
Tafa has also accused the BDP of using state media to its advantage.
While opposition leaders have been allocated air time on Botswana’s state television station (the only television station in the country), they have reportedly claimed that this air time was insufficient — and that it came too late in the campaign to do them any good.
On the campaign trail, President Festus Mogae (who is also leader of the BDP) is said to have promised voters improved training so that they can find jobs — and an extension of water and electricity supplies.
He is also quoted as promising to amend all laws that discriminate against women. However, none of the parties has fielded a significant number of women candidates. The BDP has seven, only three of whom are expected to perform well. The BNF has three women candidates, and the BCP two.
As new MPs elect Botswana’s president, a victory for the BDP would also hand Mogae his second and final five-year term in office.
The president has indicated that he will not remain in office until 2009, however, but hand over power to Khama in March 2008.
This move has not been universally welcomed.
Reports indicate that the opposition wants a referendum challenging Mogae’s decision. Commentators have also noted with dismay that Khama, formerly an army commander, has made use of military helicopters on the campaign trail — contrary to the Botswana Defence Force Act and a ruling from the country’s ombudsman.
A total of 552 890 voters have registered for the weekend poll — just more than 60% of those who are eligible to cast ballots.
Apart from the problems posed by unemployment, the winning party will also confront the challenge of coping with Botswana’s Aids pandemic. After Swaziland, Botswana has the world’s highest HIV prevalence rate of more than 35%.
Botswana was the first country in Africa to provide HIV-positive citizens with free anti-retroviral drugs. However, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids notes on its website that ”while some successes have been made in the decade-long response [to AIDS], the country has been unable to keep pace”.
Controversy also continues to brew over the removal of indigenous San people from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Survival International, an NGO based in London, claims the San (also referred to as Bushmen) have been evicted from the lands in order to make way for diamond exploitation — a charge Gaborone denies.
The government has been quoted as saying that the San are being encouraged to leave the reserve because their activities interfere with its management — and also because the social services they should have access to are not available in the reserve. — Sapa-IPS