The Member of Parliament for Serowe North, Ndelu Seretse has written a formal letter of protest and complaint to the Electoral Board of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party, asking them to call a re-run for the whole constituency.
Primary Elections in Serowe were held last week, but there was no parliamentary winner declared because there had been irregularities at one of the wards in the constituency.
The Electoral Board had said following irregularities in Patikwane ward, a re-run will be confined only to the affected ward.
But Seretse, who is also minister of Defence and Justice has hit back saying the ruling by the Electoral Board goes against the party’s rules and regulations governing the conduct of primary elections.
A lawyer by training, Seretse cites section 9(f) of the parties rules; “I believe a situation like this is regulated by section 9(f) which reads ‘where an irregularity has occurred or the process of election has for unforeseen circumstances failed in any polling station there shall be a re-election in the whole ward if it were an election for a council seat or re-election for the whole constituency if it were election for a parliament seat.’ The process of election had failed in that no winner could be declared for the constituency as the constituency election had been disrupted and the election was for both council and parliamentary seats. Accordingly there should be a re-run for the constituency,” says Seretse.
He further add that a decision by the Electoral Board to have a re-run of elections only in the constituency be set aside.
If Seretse’s interpretation of the rules is correct, it would put a spanner in the works for his opponent, Kgotla Autlwetse who had led with a significant margin in all the wards in the constituency, save for the one in contest.
The talks of a possible re-run will be familiar to Autlwetse’s ears.
In the past he defeated Seretse, only to be defeated in a re-run under circumstances with arcane similarities to what is currently cooking up.
In an interview with Sunday Standard, the Chairman of the BDP Electoral Board, Parks Tafa confirmed receiving Seretse’s letter.
He said a copy has already been forwarded to Autlwetse.
“I confess I was not aware of Section 9(f). If I was I would have made a totally different recommendation to the Central Committee at the Monday meeting. Being a lawyer does not mean I know everything. There are things I learn from other people,” said Tafa.
He did not rule a change of decision.
“As per the regulations the decision for a re-run can only be made by the Electoral Board. We will meet and discuss Mr. Seretse’s letter,” said Tafa.
