Botswana National Front
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The Botswana National Front (BNF) is a
social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
political party in
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 ...
. It has been the main opposition party in Botswana since the 1969 elections. The party achieved its greatest electoral success in the 1994 elections, when it won 37.1% of the vote and 13 of 40 parliamentary seats. A factional conflict in 1998 led to the departure of 11 of these MPs, who then founded the
Botswana Congress Party The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) is a political party in Botswana. The BCP was founded in 1998 in a split from the Botswana National Front, with most of the BNF's sitting Members of Parliament joining the new party after a leadership dispute w ...
(BCP). In the
1999 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1999. * 1999 electoral calendar Africa * 1999 Algerian presidential election * 1999 Botswana general election * 1999 Beninese parliamentary election * 1999 Central African Republic presidential elect ...
, the BNF's vote share declined to 26% and it won 6 parliamentary seats. In the 2004 general election the party won 26.1% of the popular vote and 12 out of 57 seats. Its representation was sharply reduced in the
2009 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2009. * Electoral calendar 2009 * 2009 United Nations Security Council election Caribbean * 2009 Antiguan general election * 2009 Aruban general election * 2009 Caymanian constitutional referendu ...
, with the party reduced to only six seats in the
National Assembly of Botswana The National Assembly is the legislative body of Botswana's national government. With the President, the National Assembly forms Botswana's unicameral Parliament. It is advised by the Ntlo ya Dikgosi: a council of chiefs which is not a house of Pa ...
. The BNF's parliamentary representation fell to 5 seats following the defection of the party's former Vice President, Olebile Gaborone, to the
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 ...
(BDP) in July 2010.


History

The BNF was founded in 1965, shortly after the
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 ...
(BDP)'s landslide victory in the self-government elections and just before Botswana gained independence. The initial goal of the BNF was to reunite the various strands of the
Botswana People's Party The Botswana People's Party (BPP), originally the Bechuanaland People's Party, is a political party in Botswana formed in December 1960 during the colonial era. As a result of disappointment with the Legislative Council, under the leadership of ...
, which had experienced a split in 1963–1964, and others opposed to the BDP. In 1969, Bathoen Gaseitsiwe resigned from his state-recognized position as chief of the Bangwaketse (a group in Southern Botswana) and joined the BNF. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the BNF was a loose alliance between conservative tribal leaders concerned with the preservation of traditional authority, led by Bathoen Gaseitsiwe, and socialists, led by
Kenneth Koma Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a by ...
, concerned over the
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
policies of the government. The first time that the party had been represented nationally was in 1969 when they won three seats in the Ngwaketse region. The BNF was largely a regional party associated with the Ngwaketse region in the 1970s, but it gradually gained support in other parts of the country. In the 1984 general elections, the BNF gained control of the
Gaborone City Council The Gaborone City Council is the governing body of the city of Gaborone, Botswana. In terms of generated revenue, it is the wealthiest council in Botswana. It is composed of 35 councillors representing the wards of Gaborone. Structure The Townsh ...
and other urban councils; it also won five of 34 parliamentary seats. In 1994, 13 BNF candidates were elected as members of the National Assembly (out of 40 total). Prior to the elections, the party redefined itself in terms of the ideology of
social democracy Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
. It was an observer member of the
Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations. ...
. By 1994 the party had adopted the motto "Time for change". The electoral success and change of motto largely reflected decreased standard of living, civil unrest and rising levels of
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
in the country. There have been a number of internal squabbles in the party due largely to factionalism. This has led to the splitting of the party a number of times and the formation of splinter parties whose political ideologies are not appreciably different from that of the BNF. Several splinter parties formed in 1989 and 1994, but the most serious split occurred in 1998 when a dispute over Kenneth Koma's leadership resulted in the departure of the majority of the party's parliamentary wing (11 of 13 MPs) and the formation of the
Botswana Congress Party The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) is a political party in Botswana. The BCP was founded in 1998 in a split from the Botswana National Front, with most of the BNF's sitting Members of Parliament joining the new party after a leadership dispute w ...
(BCP). The split followed an aborted BNF party congress, dissolution of the central committee by Koma, and a bitter court case. In 2003, ongoing factional conflict prompted the BNF's founder, Kenneth Koma, to form the New Democratic Front. Of these splinter parties, the BCP has gained the most popular support. In elections in 1999 and 2004, vote-splitting between the BNF and the BCP reduced the parliamentary representation of both the BNF and the opposition as a whole. The BNF retained only 6 of its 13 parliamentary seats in 1999 and the BCP won only one seat. An increase in the number of constituencies from 40 to 57 allowed the BNF to win 12 seats in 2009 despite no meaningful change in its vote share. The BCP did not benefit from the expansion of seats and again won only one seat. Until July 2010, the party was led by Otsweletse Moupo. Moupo himself has emphasized the need to help the poor escape from poverty. Moupo experienced a number of public embarrassments in 2006 that led to serious and mounting challenges from within the party. Moupo's leadership was reaffirmed at a special party congress in 2007, but his opponents continued to challenge his leadership. In 2008 and 2009, the BNF suspended or expelled several prominent members, including several of its parliamentary representatives, and fought several court battles related to primary elections. In the 2009 elections, several former members of the BNF ran as independent candidates, referring to themselves as the Temporary Platform. The BNF suffered significant losses; it won six seats. The BCP formed an electoral pact with the
Botswana Alliance Movement The Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) was a progressive political party in Botswana, led by Ephraim Lepetu Setshwaelo. Prior to the 2009 election the party entered into an electoral pact with the Botswana Congress Party. In the 2009 elections t ...
and the NDF and increased its representation from one seat to five. Vote-splitting continues to be a problem in that the BDP often wins seats when all three parties are competitive. This occurs most often in urban areas. But the BDP also took seats from the BNF in rural constituencies where the BCP did not have a candidate. Otsweletse Moupo decided that he would not defend his position as party president and
Duma Boko Adv. Duma Gideon Boko is a Motswana politician. He is a lawyer and jurist. He is the president of the main opposition party in Botswana and Botswana National Front (BNF). Adv Duma Boko & Dumelang Saleshando UDC campaigned in the 2019 electio ...
was elected as the new party president in July 2010. In 2013 congress that will be held in Gantsi, Comrade Monang will challenge Comrade Boko in what seems to be a David vs Goliath war.


Notable members

*
Duma Boko Adv. Duma Gideon Boko is a Motswana politician. He is a lawyer and jurist. He is the president of the main opposition party in Botswana and Botswana National Front (BNF). Adv Duma Boko & Dumelang Saleshando UDC campaigned in the 2019 electio ...
* Reverend Dr. Prince Moiseraela Dibeela * Moeti Mohaswa * Otsweletse Moupo * Patrick Kgoadi * Otlaadisa Koosaletse


Electoral history


National Assembly elections


References


External links


Official web site
{{Authority control Former member parties of the Socialist International Political parties in Botswana Social democratic parties in Africa Socialism in Botswana