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Botswana leader’s party clinches next five years at helm

Botswana President Ian Khama’s ruling party on Saturday swept parliamentary polls to return its tough-talking leader to the helm of the world’s biggest diamond producer.

After a poll proclaimed as peaceful, the country’s chief justice confirmed Khama had secured the next five years in office, after the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) cemented its four-decade rule since independence in 1966.

“I have the honor and privilege to declare Ian Khama Botswana president as his party has garnered more than enough seats for him to be declared president of the republic of Botswana,” chief justice Julian Nganunu told state radio.

With 45 of 57 seats announced, the main opposition Botswana National Front (BNF) had only four seats, on a par with its offshoot, the Botswana Congress Party, with an independent taking one seat. The BDP had 36 seats.

“We are the new government again,” BDP party election committee member Langston Motsete said.

The president’s inauguration is expected early next week.

This is the first election win for Khama, 56, the son of Botswana’s founding father and former military commander who took over when his predecessor retired in April last year, and faced criticism for an authoritarian leadership style.

The polls were the toughest yet for the ruling party, beset by bitter factionalism and mounting concerns over poverty and unemployment as the economy was struck by falling diamond revenues.

However, with little contest from a weak opposition, the BDP and its teetotaling, fitness fanatic leader were tipped to win from the start.

Khama’s no-nonsense approach has made him popular abroad as he often breaks ranks with regional leaders’ timid approach to join a barrage of international criticism of democratic abuses by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

As chaos across the border overshadowed Botswana’s peaceful poll, Khama said this week Harare’s fragile unity government was “limping along” and faced collapse, warning he would not recognize a Mugabe-only government.

Africa’s flagship democracy Botswana is often hailed for its stability on an often volatile continent, in sharp contrast to neighboring Zimbabwe where failed elections last year were accompanied by violence and economic crisis.

An observer mission from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc said polls had been peaceful and calm with no reports of intimidation.

“It was a peaceful way of voting ... everything was really calm,” said Henrique Banze, deputy foreign minister of Mozambique and a leader of the 88 SADC observers.

BNF opposition spokesman Mohwasa Moeti said that while the party had grievances in the build up to the election over space allocated in the state media and the ruling party’s “abuse of state resources” for campaigning, “the people have spoken.”
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