rallies after suspension.
BMD Secretary General, Tseleng Botlhole told Sunday Standard that the National Executive Committee (NEC) is in discussions to present their proposal to the UDC leadership.
“We are very much willing to engage the UDC even though they chased us out like dogs. Unseating the ruling BDP can never be done by any individual opposition party”
“There is need for a united opposition block if we are serious about unseating the BDP but in any case, we have not concluded on the nature of cooperation we want with UDC” added Botlhole.
Botlhole further stated that they are considering partnering with the UDC ahead of the anticipated by-elections.
“Before the outbreak of Covid-19, we had planned at our evaluation meeting to revive our structures through our first 10 constituencies where we had fielded candidates in the last elections”
“We have instructed our branches to hold party activities and recruitment of members, so we are hard at work”
“We still very much believe that we have a lot of relevance, you will recall that in the lead up to the general elections we lost quite a good number of our members particularly because they were disillusioned by the UDC decision to kick us out” said Botlhole.
Botlhole further noted although they are willing to join the UDC, they are disconcerted by reports of instability within the coalition.
“We are worried by reports of instability within the UDC and we can only hope that they address those issues before welcoming individual parties into the coalition” added Botlhole.
For his part, UDC Spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa said they were not in talks with the BMD as they had not been approached.
“We are not in talks with BMD and they have not approached us. We could comment if they had approached us” added Mohwasa.
On the other hand, Political analyst Leonard Sesa said when the BMD broke away from the BDP in 2010, most of their members took advantage and gained more seats within the UDC and ultimately won them for the party.
“The problem came about when they encountered a leadership problem and some ended up retracing their steps to the BDP”
“I would advise them to retrace their steps back to the BDP because at the time they left, they had issues with the former President Ian Khama” said Sesa.
He also stated that given that they still have the BDP ideologies, it will be only right for them to re-join, adding that their move to the UDC is likely to spark the issues that led to their initial departure.
Sesa dismissed BMD’s potential of claiming state power on their own, adding individual parties have failed over the years to unseat the BDP.
“It is no secret that no individual party can unseat the BDP on their own, but then again when you analyse the BMD, you wonder how they will be able to convince the UDC that they command a huge following in certain constituencies and therefore should be allocated the particular constituencies”
“They have a lot of work to do because parties are working towards retaining their lost constituencies, so it will be difficult for them to be given constituencies within the UDC” said Sesa.
