Botswana's eighth election campaign moves slowly - Elections '99 - Sustainable Democracy

GABORONE, 12 October 1999
In four days time Botswana will hold its eight
multi-party general elections next Saturday and there seems little doubt that the majority will cast their ballots for the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) led by President Festus Mogae. The BDP has been in power since independence in 1966 and the biggest question is how many seats the party will get in the 40-member elected Parliament. (Four MPs are chosen later by the National Assembly, making a full House of 44 MPs).

As the politicians heated up their rallies, the sparsely-populated country was victim of a bizarre and totally unrelated event which squeezed the
election off page one of the countries newspapers today. No one is talking elections following the deliberate plane crash at Gaborone's Sir Seretse
Khama airport, which wiped out three of Air Botswana's four planes.

As passengers from other airlines made their way last night to the terminal, named after Bostwana's first president, they were forced to skirt the smouldering wreckage lying on the tarmac after a tragic suicide by a disgruntled senior pilot. Christopher Phatshwe eluded airport security early Monday morning, stole a twin-engined Air Botswana plane from the runway and circled the city and airport for about two hours at 20,000 feet demanding to speak to Mogae or Vice-President Ian Khama.

Apparently, having been demoted to a desk job due to ill health said to be AIDS-related, Phatshwe sought reinstatement as a pilot through this deranged
action. Mogae was out of the country. When his fuel ran out, Phatshwe crash-landed into the two other
aircraft parked on the runway ready for the day's flights. He was instantly killed in the ensuing fireball which reduced three-quarters of the airline's fleet to scrap metal.

Meanwhile, politicians on the hustings could do little more than describe the incident as a tragedy and try to turn attention to the last days of campaigning.

There are more parties and candidates contesting the elections than ever before. Of the approximately 800,000 people over 18 who are eligible to vote, fewer than 450,000 have actually registered. With a youthful
population, many will be voting for the first time but
observers say rallies are generally small, quiet and concentrate more on personality issues than more concrete concerns.

The Opposition is split between the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) which broke away from the Botswana National Front (BNF) after the 1994 elections, taking over as official opposition. An attempt to unite opponents of the BDP, the Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) may have some appeal to younger urban voters. There are a number of smaller parties running as well but only these four are given any chance of winning seats in Parliament.

There are serious attempts by pressure groups and non-governmental organisations to raise key issues such as urban and rural poverty, unemployment, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and gender concerns. Unfortunately, say observers, the government gets blamed for everything that has gone wrong, while the ruling party reponds that it has achieved major accomplishments in the economic front, road-building and preserving Botswana's long-standing stability and multi-party democracy.

The issues and split opposition seem not to have captured a lot of voter interest and on the streets of Gaborone today, most people could only try to come to grips with the tragic plane crash.

"This has been an odd year for Botswana," a local businessman, Robert Marsh, said. "No one ever heard of us until earlier this year when Mpule Kwelabobe won the Miss Universe contest. Next we had that silly State of Emergency over 67,000 missing
voters (parliament was recalled in September to reopen the voters' list over a mistake in registration) and now this air tragedy. We are conservative here. We like our stability. All this attention is too much." (SARDC)