Botswana women step up election campaign - Elections '99 - Sustainable Democracy

GABORONE, 12 October 1999
Women's organisations in Botswana, one of Africa's longest surviving multiparty democracies, have launched an ambitious campaign to raise female
participation in the country's parliamentary processes after the 16 October national elections.

Emang Basadi Women's Association is leading the rally for increased representation of women in the 44-seat parliament to redress gender disparities in what has for long been a predominantly patrilineal society.

At least eleven women have been fielded by the four main parties likely to win seats in saturday's election with the ruling Botswana Democratic Party(BDP) floating the largest number at six.

The opposition Botswana Congress Party(BCP) has three women candidates, the Botswana National Front(BNF) and the Botswana Alliance Movement(BAM), one each.

In a passionate plea to a generally disinterested young population, Emang Basadi stresses that the people have the power to put at least nine women in
parliament and impress it upon the President and parliament to appoint four more which would effectively lift their numbers to 30 percent.

Forty of the seats in parliament are elective while four Members of parliament are chosen by parliament.

Taking out full page adverts in the local press, the Women's Association said:" As a voter, you have the power to send nine women out of the above to
parliament. Our president and his next parliament have the power to put four more women into parliament".

Although women constitute 54 percent of the 25-39 years old population, only one woman prior to 1997 held a cabinet post. Only four out of forty elected
to parliament in the 1994 elections were women, constituting a mere 9 percent.

Touted as a shining example of democracy, stability, economic growth and good governance, Botswana has however come under fire from gender sensitive critics for the imbalances in political representation.

Botsalo Ntuane, Executive Secretary of the BDP says his party has taken the gender question more seriosuly than the opposition.

"Out of our forty parliamentary candidates, six are women. We are the party with the largest number of women representation. For example, out of the 406
council wards, 97 seats are contested by women", he said.

Ironically, it was the question of greater women presence in party politics that contributed to the split in the Botswana National Front(BNF). The BNF
raised hopes of a strong opposition to BDP in the 1994 elections, winning 13 seats. It was the first time in Botswana's BDP-dominated electoral history
that an opposition party had won more than three(3) seats.

The resolution to increase the number of women in the BNF's central committee in 1997 to 30 percent was one of the factors that caused a rift in party and led to the formation of the rival Botswana Congress Party(BCP), according to Mike Dingake, President of BCP and his Deputy Secretary (a woman) Motsei Madiwe.

Eleven members of parliament deserted the BNF for the break-away BCP.
The BNF, which was left with two seats after the split, believes that it can re-assert itself in saturday's polls.

BNF candidate Mareledi Giddie, who is standing in the Gaberone area, predicts that his party is cable of grabbing 21 seats but admits it is severely strapped for cash. All its 38 candidates are funding themselves.
The gender issue will however not be subdued, he says.

"It is time our women are empowered. Traditional factors do not inhibit the election of women to political posts", Giddie explained.

The main opposition parties are strong in urban areas where issues of unemployment and poverty are well articulated and felt. Although Africa's
richest nation per capita, 46 percent of its estimated 1.3 million population live in abject poverty especially rural women and the indigenous Basarwa.

Ntuane admits that the BDP is weak in these areas.

"We have done what we can. In the last elections, BDP did not win a single seat in Gaberone", the BDP Executive Secretary said.

The BDP has swept all elections since independence from Britain in 1966 and has during its reign, seen Botswana embrace enormous riches from the diamond industry with the pula, the national currency, standing as Africa's strongest.

The BDP, which is favoured to win the majority seats once again, is led by incumbent President Festus Mogae, a British-educated Economist and well
respected technocrat who rose from Finance minister to succceed Sir Ketumile Masire as President in 1998.

His ascendency to the post of chief executive was part of the BDP's rejuvination process-infusing young blood-in the face of opposition
encroachment on parliamentary power in 1994. The split in the opposition has boosted BDP chances of regaining lost ground, analysts say.

Botswana's president is elected by the National Assembly and is an ex-officio member of it. The land-locked country covering 581,730sq km uses
the first-past-the-post electoral system.

With the election two days away, the atmosphere is very much low-key. About 460,000 registered to vote out of an eligible 900,000, despite the move to
lower the voting age to 18 from 21.

The younger population, say some experts, feel disengaged from the electoral process because they have previously not participated in elections and
issues such as gender would not immediately occupy their priority list. Poor civic education campaigns have also been blamed for the apathy. (SARDC)