All indications are that the next parliamentary session will be one of the most interesting ever.
Regular visitors to parliament’s public gallery say they cannot wait for the session to start.
Not only has the number of opposition MPs drastically increased, at least in proportionate terms, the former ruling party MPs are also likely to strive to hit their former party where it hurts most.
A regular visitor of parliament Thabo Moseki says he has every reason to believe the coming session is going to be the liveliest, debate-wise.
An unemployed graduate accountant still looking for a job, Moseki says he believes the coming session will be the most interesting as his favourite politicians would no longer be shackled by the dictates of the ruling party caucus.
“For sometime now since I started visiting parliament I have listened to sound motions be defeated just because BDP parliamentarians feared to go for broke against their party’s decisions. Now that we have a new party things may change for the better as they would be free to say their minds,” he said.
Moseki says he hopes motions like that calling for the declaration of assets by public leaders, abolishment of school fees and the direct election of the president and abolishment of automatic succession moved by the MP’s mostly from the opposition could have passed and benefited the nation had the BDP leadership allowed MPs to follow their consciences.
A BDP supporter since childhood, the 25 year old says he has now shifted his weight behind the Botswana Movement for Democracy which he believes could shake the ruling party were it to cooperate with other opposition parties in parliament.
Although their numbers are currently insignificant as to cause BDP sleepless nights, Kabo Seleke is praying day and night for all Barata-Phathi in parliament to bite the bullet, resign from the BDP and join the new party.
Another motion set to raise tempers this coming session is the one by Botsalo Ntuane calling for an review of some sections in the constitution.
The motion was aborted in the past after it was feared it could steal the limelight from the President’s State of Nation Address.
