Botswana votes as president's party seeks to extend six-decade rule

Diamond-rich Botswana voted in general elections Wednesday with the ruling party vying to extend its 58 years in power and hand President Mokgweetsi Masisi a second term amid concerns about rising unemployment and an economic slump.

Many of the more than one million registered voters queued for several hours to cast their ballots in the sparsely populated country, which prides itself on being southern Africa's oldest democracy, but where the same party has been in power since independence in 1966.

Voting extended into the night at polling stations where people were still queueing after the scheduled closing time of 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) but others closed on time and prepared for counting.

"It is my time to voice my opinion. I can't wait," said Lone Kobe, 38, who arrived at her voting venue more than three hours before polling stations opened.

Self-employed Kobe said she was voting to change a system dominated by the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).

"We are seeing a percentage of the population enjoying the benefits. We are just the spectators, like we are watching a movie," she said.

Botswana's vast diamond reserves, discovered just after independence from Britain, have driven growth and development, lifting the arid country out of extreme poverty.

But today it ranks as one of the most unequal nations in the world while Masisi's first five-year term has seen unemployment among the 2.6-million population rise to 27 percent amid a downturn in growth partly linked to weakened diamond sales.

The government has also faced allegations of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement.

Masisi, 63, was elected in 2019 with around 52 percent. The party is not expected to fare better this time and commentators have raised the prospect of a first hung parliament.

Masisi told reporters after voting: "I don't want a hung parliament. But elsewhere, if that happens, parties negotiate."

He acknowledged concerns about a decline in Botswana's foreign reserves and weakened international diamond sales, saying the government would increase local investments as a countermeasure.

"We intend to address that by putting money into the pockets of citizens and building infrastructure," said Masisi, adding he was confident that "victory is certain".

Claims of irregularities

The opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), whose leader Duma Boko, 54, is one of four presidential candidates, said its party agents had reported irregularities such as the use of non-certified voter rolls.

"Our fear is that we are going to have another rigged election just as in 2019," the head of a UDC monitoring group, Mike Keakopa, told AFP.

The party would decide later whether to take these complaints to court or choose other action, he said. The UDC's attempt to have the results of the 2019 election thrown out over alleged irregularities was dismissed in court.

"Absent vote-rigging, we would clearly win more than 31 constituencies, which is the required number," Keakopa claimed.

With 61 seats up for grabs in parliament, Botswana's first-past-the-post system means the first party to take 31 seats will be declared the winner and install its candidate as president.

Counting for the municipal ballot was to start as polls closed with the parliamentary ballot boxes transported to separate counting centres. The Independent Electoral Commission said it expected first results late Thursday.

The clout of the left-leaning UDC was undermined by the departure of two key parties in the lead-up to the vote, both of which are fielding their own candidates -- Mephato Reatile, 57, of the populist Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and Dumelang Saleshando, 53, of the social democratic Botswana Congress Party (BCP).

The UDC appeals to young voters thirsty for change but 23-year-old university student Oarabile Pamwe said he did not chose the party because it was pushing false claims about irregularities on social media.

"It's deceiving uneducated youth who think it's true," he said.