The dust from the Botswana’s 2024 general election has settled and the results of that election have gone into the annals of the country’s political history. While I could feel and sense that the then ruling Botswana Democratic Party was in a lot of trouble, I never imagined that it could be so decisively defeated that it would be relegated to fourth position after the Botswana Patriotic Front. The last time BDP was in this kind of trouble was in 2014. Though it garnered only 47 percent of the popular vote then, thanks to the first-past-the-post electoral (FPTP) system, the BDP emerged on top. Not in 2024. Many people, including BDP’s own loyalists, are still reeling from the shock of it all and still can’t figure out what hit a party that has been in power for close to 60 years. The answer to this question is, however, much more complex than most people realize. Let me reflect on what I think led to the political obliteration of the world’s oldest-ruling party.
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