unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/04/89)
BOTSWANA: General Elections for Desert Democracy
Gaborone, September 28, 1989 (AIA/IPS) -- On October 7 more
than 360,000 registered voters in this nation of 1.2 million
will go to the polls to choose from five political parties
in what observers say could be a hard fought contest.
This Kalahari desert state, the size of France, is one of the
few in Africa which offers regular elections with a choice
of parties.
Candidates will contest 34 parliamentary constituencies and
254 local government seats. There are three Presidential
contestants: current President Quett Masire from the ruling
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), opposition Botswana National
Front (BNF) leader Kenneth Koma, and Botswana Peoples' Party
(BPP) leader Knight Maripe.
There are 34 parliamentary seats. At dissolution BDP held 29
seats. The official opposition BNF had only four seats
followed by the BPP with a lone member. Two other parties,
the Botswana Independence Party (BIP) and the Botswana
Freedom Party (BFP) hold no seats.
The October 7 poll will be the sixth since a 1965 general
election under British colonial "protectorate" rule heralded
independence in 1966. The BDP won that election with its
leader the late Sir Seretse Khama, a member of one of the
nation's royal families.
Since then the BDP has never lost an election, with its
lowest seat total of 24 coming in 1969.
The party has built on its strength among the traditional
chiefs and rural peasantry. Royal and rich families who
count their wealth in vast cattle herds have been generously
supported with state incentives and subsidies. Villagers
have gained access to basic health, education and social
development initiatives.
The BPP was the political party which organised workers and
urban communities to fight for independence. It has been
eclipsed over the years by the BNF which seeks a socialist
transformation of the economy. Today BPP is a regional party
drawing on feelings of disaffection traditional among the
minority Kalanga people who live in the districts
surrounding the nation's second city Francistown, in the
north.
BNF support is drawn from the larger towns in the south of
the country, particularly Gaborone and Kanye.
During the '80s intensive diamond mining, a seven-year
drought, South African destabilisation, and the formation of
the Southern Africa Development Coordinating Conference
(SADCC) have caused stresses and strains that some say could
end the BDP's balancing act.
Crises caused by a new era of "hyper development" were cited
when Opposition leader Koma introduced a motion of no
confidence in the government during mid-August. He listed
increasing unemployment and housing shortages in urban areas,
an education crisis, and lack of rural development.
Discovery of diamonds and the influx of companies seeking a
way round sanctions to ship products to SADCC member states
has brought a flood of money into Botswana. Gaborone has
become one of the fastest growing urban areas in Africa. New
streets appear every week and a frenzied construction boom
is throwing up offices for a thriving service sector.
But all the money is going into a few pockets. The BDP's
endorsement of traditional capitalist free market principles
has put a small middle class in line to get most of the
riches. At the same time 100,000 (25 percent) of the 400,000
strong labour force is out of work.
For years an innovative co-operative and post-secondary
school collective technical training movement meant many
young people were either kept off the job market or were
streamed into local initiatives where they applied their
trades to community needs. Yet the movement suffered from
chronic under capitalisation (much investment coming from
NGOs like Canada's CUSO), and poor financial management.
The BDP's February 1988 budget reformed the nation's economic
and financial environment. Local co-operative structures
were placed second as future development was pinned to the
attraction of multinational corporations and international
capital to mega projects. (See SAO-8803007, SAC Vol 1, April
1988)
As one observer from a co-operative institution says, "The
net effect is a slow but perceptible separation between the
rich and the poor as some people turn their backs on the
traditional sense of sharing and responsibility which has
bound the nation together."
But there have been successes. Late in the '70s the BDP
government listened when scientists said a decade of drought
was on the horizon. Committees were formed and community
survival plans were built around drought relief. The drought
came and lasted until 1987.
In other nations millions died. In Botswana some people lost
their villages to sand but few died.
One startling statistic had the numbers of well-nourished
babies per thousand go up during the drought. Today the
nation's efforts are seen as a model for other African
states.
This attention to the needs of the rural majority has forged
a bond between the BDP and the people which will be hard to
break. Typical are the comments of a primary school teacher
who lost her village along the dried-up Lake Ngami to
drought and now must travel a bone-crunching road to work and
buy supplies. "The road has not been fixed for years. But as
soon as our local leaders get to see how bad it is they will
have it fixed, I am sure".
Enough leaders still respond to enough community demands that
few believe the BDP's peasant support will erode this time
round.
Chances of BDP re-election are heightened by an ideological
battle which has torn apart the BNF.
Party members in the stronghold area of Kanye say revised
policies have opened the door to "communists". They have
challenged BNF's advocacy of a one-party state, and curbs on
press and religious freedom.
Eleven key members have been either suspended or expelled.
The BNF sitting MP for Kanye, Leach Tlhomelang has set up
his own Botswana Freedom Party and is tipped to hold his
seat.
* Origin: AlterNet Better World Communications (1:163/113)
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726
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