GABORONE, Botswana – Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi conceded defeat to his main opposition rival on Friday, admitting that his Botswana Democratic Party which has ruled the country since 1966 had “lost massively.”
“The evidence is overwhelming. We lost this election massively. We need to come to terms with it and make space and opportunity to the newly elected leaders and support them so that they can succeed because it’s Botswana’s success that’s most important,” Masisi said on a televised address to the nation.
Masisi, a 63-year-old former UNICEF employee, said he had spoken to Duma Boko, the leader of the Umbrella for Democratic Change and assured him of a smooth handover of power.
“Starting tomorrow or as in my discussion with the president elect, at a time convenient to him, we will begin all administrative work to facilitate the transition and I assure you that I will not take any actions to hinder or slow down this process,” Masisi said.
“I will also hand over all outstanding government matters to the new president so he may address them after his inauguration. I promise to do my part to build a strong country from within and to work with the new administration to ensue that every citizen has opportunities at their finger tips and I look forward to attending the inauguration.”
Preliminary results from Wednesday’s election, with counting still underway, showed three opposition parties had together won at least 31 of 61 seats in the national legislature, according to tallies by AFP and other media.
This meant Masisi’s BDP, which has been in power for 58 years since independence from Britain, could not get enough seats to govern.
The left-leaning opposition UDC had already secured more than 24 seats, party official Mike Keakopa told AFP, and was aiming to reach 31 seats to become the outright winner and hand the presidency to its leader, Harvard-educated human rights lawyer Boko.
The two other opposition parties, the Botswana Congress Party which was being supported by former president Ian Khama and the Botswana Patriotic Front, had taken around a dozen seats each.
The BDP had won just one seat.
The result is a major blow for the BDP and Masisi, who took office in 2018 and had been confident of securing a second term.
The results are expected to be confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission later Friday.
More than one million people were registered to vote on Wednesday, from a population of 2.6 million, with concerns about unemployment and mismanagement in Masisi’s first term a leading complaint in the arid nation.
Boko, 54, created the UDC in 2012 to unite parties against the bulwark of the BDP. It is the third time that he has run for the presidency.
“CHANGE IS HERE,” he wrote on Facebook as his party’s strong showing became clear.
A key concern of voters was unemployment which has risen to 27 percent this year and a slump in the economy due in part to weakened diamond sales, Botswana’s single biggest revenue earner, with growth projected to slow to one percent in 2024.
There have also been allegations of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement by Masisi’s government, while the gap between the rich and poor is one of the largest in the world, according to the World Bank.
The new government will need to focus on weaning the country off its diamond dependency, stabilise the economy and create new jobs, especially for young people, independent political commentator Olopeng Rabasimane said.
