Botswana Postpone Census to 2022

President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his government earlier this year announced their decision to postpone the census that was meant to take place this month, to October 2022. While the government have made this decision due to the COVID- 19 situation in the country, many have asked how this delay might pose challenges or political uncertainty regarding the 2024 general elections.

Should the census take place in October 2022, the results of the exercise may only be known until the middle/end of 2023. After the results have been published, President Masisi announced that he would appoint a Delimitation Commission, chaired by a judge of the High Court of Botswana. 

The Commission will oversee the delimitation of new electoral constituencies in Botswana ahead of the 2024 general elections. This process can take up to six months or a year to complete and happens every 10 years.

The Delimitation exercise is part of the governments National Development Plan 11 (NDP11). The exercise will help the government replace the current election database (Elections Management System) which has been in place since 1998 with a more modern technology for efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of the electoral process.

Delimitation of constituencies is a challenging national exercise considering the inherent expectations of political parties and voters in various areas of Botswana. The terrain, population density and various geographical factors also pose challenges of delimitating constituencies particularly in the massive Central, Northwest, Kgalagadi and other districts.

In addition, the delimitation exercise requires kgotla meetings, which are normally attended by many people where they can express their views regarding the size of the constituencies. This part of the process often can be characterised by other difficulties such as fear and suspicion on the part of the voting population.

As a result of these challenges, the Delimitation Commission are likely to take at least six months to bring together its work and determine constituencies that will be contested in the 2024 general elections. The question on many people’s mind is will this process happen ahead of the next stage in preparing for the general election?

After the constituencies have been set out and determined, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) must step in and set up polling districts and stations and register voters in the various polling districts. After that it must prepare voters’ rolls that have to be screened, confirmed, and published ahead of the parliamentary and local government elections. Various legal instruments guide this process. Ballot papers featuring candidates for various parliamentary and council seats will be printed as the final stage before the 2024 general election.

Given the pressure that the Masisi administration decision has put on the Delimitation Commission and the IEC, will Botswana have a free, fair, and credible election in 2024?

Photo: KENNEDY RAMOKONE