REGISTERED WITH THE DIRECTOR OF POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS AS A NEWSPAPER REGISTERED WITH THE DIRECTOR OF POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS AS A NEWSPAPER Volume IV No. 5 Organ of the Bechuanaland Democratic Party JULY, 1966 Local Government Elections: A Post-mortem THE Local Government Elections, the first in self-governing Bechuanaland, soon to be called Botswana, have come and passed, and their results must necessarily be assessed against a number of circumstances, coming as they do a year only after the smashing victory of the Bechuanaland Democratic Party at the first national elections in March 1965. DISCOMFITURE OF THE OPPOSITION AT NOMINATION As far as the opposition parties were concerned their defeat was decided at the nomination on the 23rd May. In spite of the much publicised coalition or election pact between the Pechuanaland People's Party and the Independence Party, the former could only field forty-nine (49) candidates for the total possible of 165 seats while the latter managed only twenty-one (21). The newly-launched Botswana National Front, which had waged a war of nerves by trying to make the country believe they had captured all the followers of the Democratic Party, was able to field only seven, although it is possible that two or three so-called independents in Lobatsi were Front supporters who did not have the guts to stand under their proper colours. The nomination results were that 82 of the B.D.P. candidates, and one Independent were returned unopposed, about 50% of the total possible seats. The election contest was for the balance of 82 seats, and the final result was as follows: Bechuanaland Democratic Party 136 Bechuanaland People's Party 21 Bechuanaland Independence Party 5 Independents 3 Botswana National Front Nil 165 VOTES CAST ACCORDING TO PARTIES Following are the totals of votes cast according to parties for the 82 contested seats: B.D.P.: 30,934; B.P.P.: 10,473; B.I.P.: 3,346; B.N.F.: 398; Independents: 1432; Total 46,583 (37147). On the above total the average number of votes cast for each of the 82 contested seats is 580, and based on this average, the total number of votes for the 82 uncontested B.D.P. seats is 47,560, so that the total number of votes for the B.D.P., in both contested and uncontested seats is 30,934 plus 47,560 or 78,494, which works out at 83% of the total votes cast. ELECTIONS THE ELECTION RESULTS BY DISTRICT At nomination the B.D.P. won 100%o of the seats for the Kgalagadi and Ghanzi Councils, and at election swept out the very feeble opposition in three more Councils, namely Ngwaketse-Rolong, Kweneng a n d Gaberones, while out of a total of 32 seats for the Central District (Ngwato), only one seat was won by the B.P.P., whose successful candidate will need all the courage he can muster to constitute a oneman opposition in a house of thirtysix government members. As one would expect, the distribution of opposition candidates was * Continued on page 2 For your PRINTING and STATIONERY BECHUANALAND PRESS (PTY.) LTD. P.O. Box 64 Mafeking PRINTERS OF THIS NEWSPAPER PAGE TWO THERISANYO - CONSULTATION JULY, 1986 LOCAL GOVT. ELECTIONS A POST=MORTEM * Continued from page 1 most patchy. Through their election pact the B.PP. and B.I.P. had respective areas of the country assigned to one or the other of the two parties. The B.P.P. candidates were confined to the North East District (Tati), Francistown, and Kgatleng, while the B.I.P. candidates stood in the east and south of the Central Region (Ngwato) and of course in the North West Region (Tawana) where the leader can exploit to advantage the old tribal feuds between the Tawana and the Bayei. Yet in spite of this alliance, in spite of the filet thate co-operation in disposition of candidates should have assisted them to field a larger number, in fact to cover the whole field, the B.P.P. - B.I.P. united front could only field between them a total of seventy candidates, which was not even fifty per cent of the 165 candidates needed. BOTSWANA NATIONAL FRONT'S POOR SHOW The front, a new party that was launched with some aplomb last year, and which tried to make us believe they had broken up the B.D.P. completely, had Kgatleng, Kweneg, Barolong Farms, and the rest swept clean of B.D.P. influence, only managed to poll 398 for the seven candidates they fielded. The General Secretary of the Party, who stood at his home in Ramoutsa, with all the advantages of contesting a s e at where he was born and brought up, polled a mere 54 votes against 334 cast for our candidate, but his was a better performance, for in Kgatleng the only two Front Candidates polled between them 29 votes, 14 and 15 respectively, while their only canlidate in the Ngwaketse District -ould must only 16 votes in a three-ornered seat which the B.D.P. canlidate won by polling 430 votes. One loes not think that the B.N.F. ionestly believes in such democratic )ractices as the election of representttives on a multi-party basis, probtbly they will still make themselves 'elt by staging demonstrations, and )y some other unholy methods which ve shall not mention to-day, but their first effort to sell their doctrines to the public have failed dismally. THE FATE OF THE INDEPENDENTS One would like to discriminate in making any reference to this group of candidates. Of necessity one or two had to choose to stand as independents for good personal reasons, whieh were acceptable; but the rest did so for reasons of cowardice and selfishness. In Lobatsi and Ramoutsa obviously one or two of the independent candidates fully sympathised with the B.N.F., but did not have the guts to nail the red flag of that party, emblazoned with the usual hammer and sickle, to their mast. They were too spineless to support their political beliefs openly, that is if they hold any, and they were going to disclose their identity, show their cards, only after they had been elected. Like true pirates many of the independents were approaching their quarry under false colours, and would only haul up th black flag with the skull and cross bones when they were within striking reach. The majority of the Independents chose to stand as such because they felt they should have been selected by their parties as candidates, and failing to secure the party candidature, they would rebel against their parties and stand as Independents. These constitute that sad class of men who consider themselves the only people who matter. If they join a party they must necessarily be chosen as candidates for election, and if they should get elected tljey must necessarily obtain an office in the Cabinet, and in that succession, and by the same logic of thinking, they are the only men who must occupy the office of head of the government, or even that of state. Nobody else is good enough. For this reason eighty per cent of the eighteen independent Candidates stood on no party ticket. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ELECTION RESULTS FOR THE B.D.P. If they are capable of reading any meaning into such election results as these, the official opposition. namely the B.P.P., will have to reassess their position in relation to the electorate, and modify some of the wild claims they made on two occasions last year, that is if these claims were made in seriousnes, which I do not believe. In his noconfidence speech in July the leader of the Opposition claimed that there had been cheating and intimidation during the national election in March 1965. During the debates on the indep. endence motion in January he chal. lenged the B.D.P. government to hold an election, and make independ. ence its main issue. He wildly claimed that the nation was behind him in his opposition to independence under the present government, that he had the mandate from the people to take the stand he did in opposing the government's plans for independence, that the electorate had seen through, and had had enough of the B.D.P., and would reject the party if it went to the country on the in. dependence issue. It was barely six months since these extravagant claims were made when the local government elections were held, for which, as we explained above, the B.P.P. could not raise one third of the candidates required, and even through alliance with the BI.P( could not raise half the numbe needed. Of the forty nine seats they contested they were able to win only three-sevenths. Somewhere above I express a reservation as to whether the Opposition ever believe what they say, for all the claims of a mandate from the people have been completely negatived by these local election results, but I know they will have something else to say, perhaps once more they had been cheated! SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS!! PAGE TWO THERISANYO - CONSULTATION JULY, 1966 ~JULY, 1966 THERISANYO - CONSULTATION PAGE THREE DITLHOPHO TSA MAKGOTLA A DIKGAOLO GWEDI ya Seetebosigo e le 13 batho ba Botswana ba ne ba tlhopha baemedi ba bone ba Makgotla a Dikgaolo. Fa go tshwantshiwa ditlhopho tse le tsa agogola tsa puso e tona, go tla lemosega gore palo ya batlhophi e ne e le kwa" tlase. Selo se se dirafala mo mafatshing otlhe, ditbhopho tsa Makgotla a Dikgao.