Efforts by the ruling Botswana Democratic Party to strike a deal that would see elections at the coming congress forfeited suffered a blow over the weekend when some of the party’s women indicated that they want to go for elections at the women’s league congress to be held in Nata next week.
The two-men delegation sent out to prepare the ground met stiff and open resistance at a meeting they held with some of ther women they had hoped to convince against going for elections. The meeting was held at Mahalapye over the weekend.
The BDP National Council has mandated ministers Kitso Mokaila and Mokgweetsi Masisis to lead the effort in preparing the ground for a compromise model favoured by President Ian Khama at a Congress scheduled for July.
“Its true that together with ministerr Mokaila we met BDP women over the weekend. I will not say the outcome of our meeting because I will have to deliver it to the meeting at Nata,” said Masisi when contacted by The Telegraph.
“A compromise does not necessarily mean that it will be,” said Masisis.
He said an ultimate decission will be voted on by the Congress.
Information so far suggests that a larger number of women who are outside the current committee would want to contest for positions and have made their stance very clear to Masisi and Mokaila.
This will come as a blow to President Ian Khama who has been pleading with the BDP faithful to seriously consider forgoing elections at the coming congress for the sake of unity.
The Women’s League was supposed to be the guinea pig for a deal that would later on be extended to the whole party.
So far, president Khama has asked all party members who would like to serve in the Central Committee to submit their names with the party Chairman, Daniel Kwelagobe, who has, in turn, been innundated by the submissions.
Interestingly, it was Mokaila and Masisi who, two years ago, hatched a similar deal for the BDP youth, resulting in a settlement that led to many being disgruntled.
