06 Nov 2024

Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) will on Saturday host a victory celebration at the National Stadium to thank Batswana for their votes, UDC policy and strategy committee member, Dr Patrick Molutsi has said.

Addressing a press conference, in Gaborone on Tuesday, Dr  Molutsi said from Gaborone, UDC would host more victory celebrations in all the districts across the country to thank the nation.

On behalf of UDC, he thanked Batswana for their vote, expressing delight that UDC was able to bag 36 of the 61 elected seats in Parliament. 

The number, he said surpassed the overall target that the party had predicted. 

He also thanked both the public and private media for doing exceptionally well in covering the general elections.

In terms of popular vote, he said UDC was able to raise 37 per cent of the total votes, whilst Botswana Congress Party and Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) raised 30 per cent and 24 per cent votes respectively. From its victory, he said UDC had learnt valuable democratic values of government.

UDC election campaign strategy, he said was to focus on the bread and butter issues of Batswana, such as the economy, poverty and inequality, unemployment, as well as infrastructure development and maintenance, among others.

He said UDC promises issue-based politics, centred on pertinent issues that would improve the livelihoods of citizens, adding that the party was committed to implement its election promises. 

To achieve this, he said the party would strive to be a transparent and interactive government.

“We are not going to spend time bashing the BDP. We thank them, they were the ruling party, they did what they did and we thank them. Bashing and spending too much time on the BDP is not going to improve the lives of Batswana,” he said.

“And please, understand that I’m not saying where we find wrong, we will ignore it. But, I’m saying we had an opportunity to criticise the BDP and we did that. That’s why we are here,” he added.

However, where there is clear violation of the law, Dr Molutsi said government would not ignore that, but would act decisively, using the right law enforcement institutions, such as Botswana Police Service and courts of law to address the matter. 

Similarly, he said any form of corruption would also be dealt with accordingly.

Further, he encouraged government employees to focus on service delivery to the public, as well as protecting and implementing government policies without undue interference from politicians. He said people should also expect a professional relationship between the ruling party and the public service.

In framing UDC manifesto, he said the party’s policy and strategy committee researched extensively and went around consulting different groups, such as church denominations, civil society organisations, domestic workers and trade unions, among others.

“We are very proud, therefore, that our manifesto was anchored, and is anchored, on the views of the citizens of this country. Therefore, excited as we are, we are content that the views that ultimately worked for our manifesto were generated from the people, themselves,” he said.

As per its manifesto, he said UDC was the only political party recognising the civil society organisations as critical players in the delivery of government mandate and that retired people’s associations and organisations still had an important role to play.

For example, some civil society organisations, he said were well resourced to create jobs, with proper guidance from the government. Ends