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Country Commercial Guides FY 2000: Botswana Report prepared by U.S. Embassy Gaborone, Botswana, released July 1999 Note*

CHAPTER III. POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

While there are several active political parties in Botswana, the country's politics have been dominated by the governing Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which has held power since independence. The BDP won 27 of the 40 contested National Assembly seats in the October, 1994 elections. With the four additional members the ruling party is authorized to appoint, the BDP holds 31 seats in the Assembly. The thirteen seats won by the opposition Botswana National Front (BNF), however, represented an unprecedented challenge to the BDP and a substantial increase from its previous representation of only three seats. The BDP won 54.3 percent of the popular vote compared to the BNF's 37.3 percent.

A traditional socialist party, the BNF has focused more on internal squabbles and criticizing BDP policies than on articulating its own platform. Currently, the BNF faces a growing challenge from dissidents who broke away to form a new party, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) in June 1998 after a year of internal squabbles and court fights over the leadership of the BNF. Eleven of thirteen MPs have crossed over to the BCP, along with many of the BNF's rank and file. The BCP retains many tenets of the BNF's social policy, while discarding much of its ideological baggage. The BCP now represents the official opposition in Parliament, but the coming election will demonstrate the degree to which the BCP has become an effective and lasting political organization. Opposition strongholds continue to center around urban areas, where the economically marginalized, particularly youth, respond favorably to opposition calls for increased government spending on human services.

Most observers predict a comfortable victory for the ruling party in October. Voters have been drawn to the BDP for over thirty years largely because its conservative fiscal programs have contributed to Botswana's marked progress. However, some Batswana would prefer to see the government save less and spend more to spread the country's wealth more equitably. The October elections will be a measure of the electorate's confidence in the government's ability to distribute Botswana's wealth, and to diversify the economy and generate jobs for all segments of society.