The 2014 general election promises are mega. In fact more than the youths expectations. At a point where even a Hollywood star from “Fast and the Furious” can jet in to the country. Botswana’s population is a very youthful one. Just like the year 1999, by the time the dust settles after the General Elections, just in Gaborone alone, it is going to be chaotic.
In 1999, the Botswana National Front in Gaborone alone managed to wrestle three out of four constituencies from the Botswana Democratic Party.
Kenneth Koma won Gaborone South constituency with 3742 votes, Robert Molefhabangwe won Gaborone West with 4673 votes cast, whilst Mzwinila won Gaborone North with 2551 votes.
Current Speaker, Margaret Nasha managed to keep Gaborone central with seven sitting council members at ward level. Out of the 25 council seats, the BNF controlled 18 seats whilst the BDP only garnered seven.
It is against the results of the 1999 general elections results and demographic characteristics from the 2011 population census that youth participation in the electoral process is going to be of great interest.
First time voters are very crucial in swaying the voter to the opposition’s favour, as statistics reveal that their proportion of the population remains very high.
It is only a matter of the extent to which potential voters can be able to influence who gets elected as the youthful electorate to express their preferences in the policies and programs of both the government in power and those who are contending for political office.
Most people register to vote but do not actually vote on Election Day. It seems voter apathy has become a consistent trend.
“A historical perspective of elections in Botswana since 1965 reveals relative political inactivity and low voter participation rates high among Batswana. Evaluation reports of the 1999 general elections show that out of a total voting age population of 867 000, about 459662 (53 percent) had registered to vote in the 1999 general elections. The actual votes cast were 354 666 (41 percent). Of the 17 400 non-resident voters only 333 (2 percent) voted against 1395 who had registered. 268 500 youths (18-21 years) were eligible, but only 21 288 (8percent) registered to vote. A sizeable proportion of the registered youths did not take up their responsibility to vote,” writes Gabriel Seeletso in the Independent Electoral Commissioners report to the Vice President and Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration on the general election in 1999.
But with all the voter apathy, nothing is more vexing than the issue of unemployment, which is rife amongst the youth.
Last year, some thousands of youths enrolled for the Youth Empowerment Scheme, only to be sent to a Botswana Defence Force training establishment in Pandamatenga near Lesoma.
“When you see children taken for military training it means they are warning us. These children will fight us one day,” remarked UDC parliamentary candidate Major General Pius Mokgware.
Though they were made to feel special and promised jobs, their impatience has now become impalpable.
Everyone from the President and his ministers to the opposition is describing the lack of jobs as a ‘time ticking bomb.’
In March 2002 the IEC released the ‘Voter Apathy Report.’ The Democracy Research Project (DRP) compiled the report. The DRP comprised of a group of professionals, namely Zibani Maundeni, who was the acting co-ordinator, Wilfred Molefe as Deputy co-ordinator, Mpho Molomo, Mogopodi Lekorwe, Thapelo Matsheka, Chris Ntau, Daniel Molaodi, Dolly Ntseane, Tidimane Ntsabane and Dorothy Mpabanga.
The above-mentioned must be credited for having worked tirelessly and to carry out the planning, piloting, and conducting of the surveys of the report.
It reads, “The 1999 General Election scenario is typical of other election years. Yet in Botswana, voter apathy happens in the absence of political violence that is commonly associated with it.
“If Batswana are not politically intimidated and are not violently prevented from voting, why do thousands of them not vote? Could it be that voter apathy is a natural positive occurrence as elite theorists think? The central focus of the report is to determine whether voter apathy in Botswana is a sign of contentment or a sign of marginality, or is a product of the country’s political history and culture, or is a result of a constraining electoral system.
“Above all the study seeks to find ways of bringing apathetic people back in to the electoral process.
“The study suggests that cultural and historical factors have a huge impact on voter apathy in Botswana i.e. how chieftainship is attained. It further suggests that the history of Botswana’s peaceful electoral democracy has an influence on voter apathy.”
Until today, some of the recommendations of the 2002 report have not been implemented.
Some of the recommendations suggest that timing of elections should be sensitive to the scheduling of secondary school examinations. Schools should release students and teachers for purposes of participating in the voting process. An elaborate mechanism must be developed through which the youth, women and men separately and together discuss issues of democracy. The youth in the urban and rural sectors of the population should be targeted through voter education.
Meanwhile the youth accuse the government of being an old dog with old tricks; simultaneously they also accuse the divided opposition of being a toothless dog with its tail in between its hind legs.
This has been mentioned in a song in a move to encourage eligible youth to register to vote in large numbers.
The song is meant to recruit youth volunteers and build awareness amongst the youth, who are the most apathetic when it comes to voting. Though it has been reported that first-time voters make up most of the population, the song is meant to sensitise the youth on the importance of registering for the polls, as it was disappointing that they failed to reach the IEC target. The producers, Keabetswe ‘Teknoize’ Ragalase and Obusitse Motshidi say they have thus far managed to feature many popular local artists on the track.
The song has been enjoying massive airplay on Yarona Fm, the most youthful radio station. The two producers say they did not even bother to engage different stakeholders such as the IEC because their movement is a non-partisan and non-profit making initiative. In the past, there have been songs such as ‘Ditlhopho Ditsile’ by celebrated guitarist Joe Morris, which were specially commissioned by the IEC to try and encourage people to vote. The song has since fizzled out.
“There are no statistics to show why the youth have been the most apathetic voters, though they make up most of the population,” said Deputy Statistician General, Dabilani Buthali, during a press conference recently to officially announce the 2011 Population and Housing Census. Now that there is a new population of just over two million, eligible voters out of that population was 1.4 million.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) spokesperson, Osupile Maroba, confirmed that there would be yet another supplementary registration in May. The IEC had set their voters registration target for this years’ general election at 1.2 million or 80 percent of the 1.4 million eligible voters, out of a new population of over two million people.
The 1.2 million targets were set, after realising that only a third of those who registered comprised of the youth. Veteran disc jockey and aspiring independent Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central constituency Sidney ‘Dj Sid’ Baitsile (Mokoko), has highly applauded this move by the young producers as smart and forward thinking.
