Seven members of Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) have shown interest to take part in the party’s primary elections for Serowe West Constituency tomorrow.
The seven, Gaotilwe Omphile, former Francistown Mayor, James Kgalajwe, Mokgobelelo Mokgobelelo, Onalepelo Kedikilwe, Dilebo Kgosikhumo, Balwela Kgosi’s spokesperson, Chimbidzani Chimidza and Monamodi Bagwasi will slug it out for the constituency that is deemed a BPF stronghold.
BPF will hold their primary elections tomorrow, Saturday as they prepare for the by election which will be held on the 8th July 2023.
The constituency fell vacant after the area’s Member of Parliament, Tshekedi Khama, went absent from the National Assembly for two consecutive meetings from November 2022 to 14th April 2023 without noticing the Speaker.
Although there have been allegations that former President, Ian Khama and his brother, Tshekedi have shown interest to contest, their names were not included un the list by Friday afternoon.
The party’s mouth piece, Lawrence Ookeditse, dismissed allegations that the National Executive Committee was in Serowe on Thursday to convince contenders to pave way for either Khama or Tshekedi.
“It is not true that we were campaigning for Tshekedi or Khama but we only went there to direct the process for tomorrow’s elections. As you can see their names are not there in the list,” Ookeditse said.
Whoever is going to win the BPF Primary elections will get the support of the Umbrella for Democratic Change as per this week’s statement by the coalition’s Head of Communications.
Mohwasa said that they have no plans to contest in the constituency and that they will support a BPF candidate.
BPF and UDC are yet to formalize their membership within the coalition.