The Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) is an opposition

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

established in 2010 by MPs and other politicians who split from the ruling

Botswana Democratic Party The Botswana Democratic Party ( abbr. BDP) is the governing party in Botswana. Its chairman is the Vice-President of Botswana, Slumber Tsogwane, and its symbol is a lift jack. The party has ruled Botswana continuously since gaining independenc ...

over differences with

Ian Khama Seretse Khama Ian Khama (born 27 February 1953) is a Botswana politician and former military officer who was the fourth President of the Republic of Botswana from 1 April 2008 to 1 April 2018. After serving as Commander of the Botswana Defence ...

, the BDP's leader and President of Botswana. It was the first party to split from the BDP, which has ruled Botswana since

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

in 1966. Its original leader was

Gomolemo Motswaledi Gomolemo Thatayaone Motswaledi (1970–2014) was a Botswana politician and music composer who co-founded the Botswana Movement for Democracy in 2010. Motswaledi also co-founded Umbrella for Democratic Change and served as its first Secretary Gener ...

, elected on May 2, 2011 at the party's inaugural congress. Botsalo Ntuane, currently MP for Gaborone West South constituency and the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, was elected as party Vice President. Sydney Pilane, who had been serving as the party's Public Relation's Officer since its formation, lost his bid for Party President to Motswaledi. According to the Preamble of the Constitution of the BMD, the party was founded "to defend and advance the rights of the peoples of Botswana during and in order to interrupt and reverse the progressive destruction of their independence and the creation of what, by most accounts, threatens to be an authoritarian government". The document goes on to stress that is aims to remove the current "undemocratic" government of Botswana "through constitutional and democratic means" with the aim of restoring and promoting "a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic Botswana."Constitution of the BMD
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Electoral history

National Assembly elections

References

External links

Official website
Political parties in Botswana Liberal parties in Africa Political parties established in 2010 2010 establishments in Botswana {{Botswana-party-stub