GABORONE, Botswana — Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi conceded defeat in the general election Friday, in a seismic moment of change for the country that ended the ruling party’s 58 years in power since independence from Britain in the 1960s.
Masisi’s concession came before final results were announced, with his Botswana Democratic Party trailing in fourth place in the parliamentary elections in what appeared to be a humbling rejection by voters and a landslide victory for the main opposition party.
The opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change held an overwhelming lead in the partial results, making its candidate, Duma Boko, the favourite to become president of a southern African country that is one of the world’s biggest producers of mined diamonds.
Masisi said he had called Boko to inform him he was conceding defeat and said that Boko was now effectively the president-elect.
Final results were expected to be announced later Friday, but the BDP had no path to a majority.
“I concede the election,” Masisi said in an early-morning press conference two days after the vote. “I am proud of our democratic processes. Although I wanted a second term, I will respectfully step aside and participate in a smooth transition process.”
Masisi’s loss comes gives an opportunity to his predecessor, Ian Khama, who had to be forced into political exile after relentless persecution by his successor.
Masisi fell out with Khama after he succeeded him as president in 2018. Some of the issues that caused the conflict were important policy differences, such as a ban on shooting elephants, while others were more personal and seemingly petty – like restricting Khama’s post-presidential privileges.
As a result, in 2019 Khama stormed out of his political home, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and helped form a new party, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF). The BPF ran against Masisi and the BDP in that year’s elections. Even though it took three parliamentary seats off the ruling party, the BDP beat off the opposition challenge, increasing its seats by one overall.
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Since then, Masisi and the law enforcement authorities seemed to have been hounding Khama. His business associates were charged for allegedly defrauding the state of billions, supposedly to finance Masisi’s overthrow. The High Court tossed out the case as pure fiction. Then Khama was charged with illegal possession of arms and ammunition, money laundering and receiving stolen property.
Khama fled to South Africa in 2021, fearing arrest or assassination. A warrant was issued against him for failing to appear in court, and he only returned to Botswana in September when a regional magistrate set aside the arrest warrant. Khama immediately entered the electoral fray, canvassing vigorously for the BPF against Masisi and the BDP.
Khama could not run for president again as he had served his maximum two terms. He was backing BPF leader, Mephato Reatile, for that office, and had made it clear that his goal was simply to unseat Masisi. And now he has the last laugh now that Duma Boko, leader of the main opposition, the three-party Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), is due to get the job. – AP/ISIS/Africa New 24
