Botswana’s BDP party loses power in election, national newspaper reports

Botswana’s President and presidential candidate for Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Mokgweetsi Masisi during the Presidential debate in Gaborone on October 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Botswana’s ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) party has lost its parliamentary majority in this week’s election, the private Mmegi newspaper reported on Friday (October 1, 2024), citing results from over half the constituencies.

Mmegi said based on results from 36 of the 61 constituencies up for grabs that opposition parties had won more than half the seats in parliament.

State radio had the same tally. It said out of the 36 constituencies so far President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) had only won one. An opposition coalition, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), had won 23.

A party needs to win 31 constituencies to get a majority in this election.