User:KeeganmQuack/National Assembly (Botswana)/Bibliography

Bibliography

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The Uneasy Relationship Between Parliament and the Executive:

• Parliament elects the president
• Different from prime minister vs. president. President acts as head of state and the head of government
• Parliament is a combination of the president and the National assembly
• Parliament has the power to make laws and the power of oversight
• Ntlo ya Dikgosi = advisory body of tribal chiefs
• Criticized government for executive having too much control over parliament.
• Gaefalale Sebeso argued that parliament becomes separate from president
• Speaker Ray Moloma, 2002, asked team to look into the the possible independence of parliament
• Defining better the role of the national assembly required in the reform of parliament
• Unclear roles with national assembly and executive. Executive is not necessarily a part of parliament
• Presidents attend Parliament when they want to. One president (Ian Khama) skipped parliament to go to the gym
• Partisanship is important to the national assembly - importance for loyalty to the president
• Ruling party = BDP. can be recalled as a candidate for the party.
• Size of cabinet, 42% of MPs in the national assembly are also ministers in the government

The Endurance + Decline of Single Party Dominance in African States

• One party dominance in Botwsana = Botswana democratic party
• Took place from 1965-2009
• Botswana Democratic Party consistently dominate - won every election from 1965-2009, continue until now
• Bechuanaland was name of Botswana under British colonial rule
• Considered by some to have been overlooked by British, least developed / poorest by independence
• Botswana is considered a successful democracy - there has never been a military coup, or militiary dictatorship
• Multi-party democracy
• Three parties entered election sin 1965 - these elections were held under colonial rule
• Bechuanaland Democratic Party won by convincing margin - 28 seats out of 31
• Only time when it came near to loosing was 1994 and 2004
• Independence occurred in 1966 - republican government
• Simple majority electoral system in place (first past the post?)
• Searching for reasons for why single party keeps on winning - general government performance is considered adequate
• neo-Patrimonial system is present in Botswana - BDP has the power. Partron-client relations are present
• BDP has power over economic and material resources. Can easily get support. “We have done this so far” - referred to as incumbent advantage

Lack of Women MPs in Botswana

• Proportion of MPs that are women has not increased in the National Assembly
• 8 percent are women in 2009 election
• Only two women won elections in 2009 - in direct elections
• Botswana does not have shortage for women capable of the jo
• Botswanan history - colonialism defined by neglect - chiefly rule still dominated
• Lack of political transition in Botswana since its independence - governing society could not be restructured in favor of women
• As of 2009 - 57 directly elected, 4 specially elected, two ex officio
• Started with 31 constituencies, now at 57
• No electoral gender quota within the nation assembly
• First-past-the-post electoral system  - disadvantages opposition
• BDP got 53 percent of popular vote, but got 79 percent of the seats
• BCP (on e o the main parties) has quotes for election - promises implementation of quota system
• Men in government generally against quotas
• Special seats - nominated by the president - elected by national assembly
• Now are basically appointments used to add to majority for BDP (sometimes add women thought)
• Originally special seats for including minority communities, then for people that would bring particular skills
• Women are competitors in general elections, they make up a small proportion of the candidate
• Not hosting primary elections among political parties is not illegal (they are not bound by law)
• Primary elections are not well trusted, viewed as relatively corrupt (report from 1999)
• Women have been undoubtedly influential in certain aspects of lawmaking - passing the Domestic violence bill
• Cabinet members are in the national assembly

Afrobarometer - Most Recent Round 2019:

• 58% of respondents strongly agreed that many political parties are important, 14% agreed
• 34% and 45% said political parties lead to violent conflict rarely and never respectively - 15% said often
• 63% of people voted in the last election, 64% of women and 62% of men
• 79% and 14% of respondents strongly disapprove and disapprove respectively of parliament (national assembly) being abolished
• 59% and 17% agree strong and agree of respondents think that parliament should act a check on the president to make sure how he allocates tax revenue - option two gives president unfettered checks
• 23% said full democracy, 52% said their country was a democracy minor problems, 17% said their were major problems
• 37% said that voters ensure that parliament does its job, 35% said president should
• 89% express that they are able to vote freely without external pressure
• 38% said parliament should ensure that president oes job
• 83% have never contacted a member of parliament - 17% have 4% do often
• 55% said president never ignores parliament - 18% say rarely
• 35% say parliament does not reflect voters opinions very well, 34% say that parliament does
• 24% does not trust parliament at all, 28% only a little, and 23% a lot
• 34% strongly disapprove of their member of parliament and how they have “performed their jobs” - 23% disapprove - 24% approve
• 32% say members of parliament never “try their best to listen to what people like respondent have to say” - 52% say only sometimes
• 44% say some members of parliament are involved in corruption, 20% say most
• Reserving seats for women - almost evenly split among 4 choices - 23% strongly disapprove, 24% disapprove, 29% approve, 19% strongly approve

The Constitution of Botswana

• President is an ex-officio member of parliament, has both the power to speak and to vote
• 57 elected members
• 6 specially elected members
• Speaker of national assembly - elected by members - speaker does not necessarily have to be a member of the national assembly
• 2/3rds of members can remove speaker
• Deputy speaker
• Qualifications of election = citizen of Botswana, at least 18 years old, registered voter, able to speak and read English
• People can also be disqualified - bankrupt, member of Ntlo ya Dikgosi, under obedience to  foreign power, is deemed insane, continues to hold other public office, under sentence of death or imprisonment exceeding six months, holds office that deals with elections
• Constituencies are divided by how many elected members there are
• Simply majority of votes applies (unless otherwise noted) for national assembly
• Parliament has the power t o make lws - bills passed by National Assembly
• Parliament continues for five years since the first meeting of the national assembly, and then will be dissolved
• The president has the power to call a meeting of the national assembly
• independent  electoral commission - supervising elections of national assembly and local elections
• vacancies  occur in many different ways, people can leave, be declared unfit, or of unsound mind
• Bills passed by national assembly - presented to the president, either assents
• It is law once the president assents

Ken Opalo - Episode on Legislatures

• Talking about strong legislatures - acting as a check on executive
• Origin story of legislatures - different in Africa, often look at origin stories in Europe
• Multiparty elections in the 1990’s  - Botswana never took this shift
• Executive dominance continued in some countries after the 1990’s  
• Switch from autocracy
• European parliament - monarch makes a deal with elites - elites want to balance the executive - they have the power. Legislature is a representation of this elite balance
• Executive was more powerful - colonial legislatures did not have much power
• Throughout Africa branch - executive branch has the power - elites rely on executive branch
• Legislative power if sparsely studied - people believe that they don’t hold enough power
• Opala sees different relationships between legislative and executive branches
• Two different types of institutions - ones that simply pass bills, ones that provide more scrutiny and check and perform other
• Talks about case study between Zambia and Kenya

Al Jazeera 2019 Elections:

• 2019 election, BDP won 29 national assembly seats (51 percent of the vote)
• 57 national assembly spots up fo relection
• Umbrella for Democratic Change = 13
• Botswana Patriotic Front = 3
• Alliance for Progressive = 1
• UDC = big challenger - endorsed by former president Ian Khama

Mail&Guardian 2019 Elections:

• Seretse Khama founded the Botswana Democratic Party
• BDP lost popular vote to opposition (all of them combined) in 2014 for the first tie
• BDP connected to the national liberation movements
• Opposition parties are split
• Botswana is known for its stability - attracts investors

History of Botswana - Stephen R. Lewis jr

• People often refer to Botswana as “African Exception”
• Ruled by British in the scope of indirect rule
• People governed by chief - indirect rule and the maintenance of a traditional culture
• British took part in very little development in the area
• Capital of colonial Botswana was in Cape Province of South Africa
• Not much human resources sent ot the area (no settler community )
• 1919 = establishment of Native Advisory Council
• 1920 - European Advisory Council
• JAC - Joint advisory council - eight members from councils + four officials from the government
• 1956 - JAC qas asked to debate and comment on legislation
• Elected tribal councils + advisors to chiefs -
• Peter Fawcus = resident commissioner in 1959 = identified with platform of BDP
• Fawcus + JAC - new constitutional order - African Council, European Council, and Legislative Council (LEGCO) - (ten Africans, ten Europeans, one Asian, ten government officials)
• First true legislature in Botswana - passing legislation, part of the transition process to independence
• The chiefs + whites + three political parties drafted Constittion at Constittional Conference
• Drafted and unanimously accepted by LEGCO
• BDP formed by Seretse Khama - African members of LEGCO
• Elections held in March 1965 - BDP won 81 percent of vote
• First speaker of national assembly was Reverend Dr. Alfred Merriweather - missionary doctor, relationship to the church
• BDP played a large role in drafting the Constitution - took notes from Constitution documents in other places around the world
• BDP reduced the power of the chief - resulting in the fact t hat a chief could not also be a member of parliament
• Multiparty elections in 1965- elections every five years
• 81 percent of vote - 28 of 31 seats
• Transparency international - Botswana = lowest corruption in Africa

Electoral Competition, Factionalism, and Persistent Party Dominance

• Tenth parliament - BDP only won 51.7% of vote in 2004
• BDP increased in 2009 to  53.5%
• Number of contingencies increased over time
• Higher percentage of competitive constituencies increased
• Elections for Botswana’s occur within the assembly - assembly elects president (he / she is not a member of the assembly though)
• Not a vote though, just based on how much a party holds in the assembly
• With a majority, a party elects their president
• Centralization is high in Botswana
• Opposition was stron gin 1970s and 1990s - opposition parties became the Botswana National Front
• Almost a national two party system, until BNF fell apart
• Opposition was centered in urban areas and a few other areas across the country
• BNF died out as people formed the the Botswana Congress Party
• BDP winning constituencies in pluralities - opposition is split
• BDP winning more constituencies, it has some support in most places
• MPs joined BMD - new political party Botswana Movement for Democracy - becoming the largest opposition
• BDP still remains most dominant party - factionalism is present. Elections are getting more competitive
• Many opposition parties - consolidation will likely not occur

Botswana Heralded as Exeception: Is this Fair?

• “African Miracle “African success story”
• Four peaceful presidential transition
• Multi-party democracy since independence, never underwent transition period in the 1990s
• BMD accused BDP of autocracy and favoritism
• 2014 - opposition parties won a majority of the vote
• UDC = Umbrella for Democratic Change = BNF (Botswana National Front) BMD and BPP (Botswana People’s Party)

Executive Dominance Related to Legislature:

• Different from Britain
• Sovereign republic - Botswana president = Head of State + Head of government
• Parliament cannot make laws that fof agains the Constitution
• Pieces of legislation go to courts
• hybrid ? = both parliamentary and presidential
• executive , judiciary, and legislature
• It is the only elected part of the national government
• Executive is supreme it seems - president has all power of the executive
• president presents most of the legislature
• Bills go through cabinet and then go to Parliament
• The chair of cabinet meetings is the president - has control
• Summoning, prorogation, and dissolution of parliament - this power belogns to the President
• Parliament is in session only depending ont he executive, not the president
• 26 cabinet ministers (16 regular, 8 assistant) in parliament
• obviously , these people see legislation before it gets to parliament
• The successor is chosen by the former president
• Leader of the Opposition - constrained by president
• Independence - national assembly is not independent of the executive - this creates a weakness
• Travel of MPs is controlled by the officer of the president
• Parliament falls within the umbrella underneath the office of the president
• 1988  - Botswana assembly pased a motion urging the separation of parliament
• Afrobarometer - support for parliament playing oversight of executive = 71% (2012), 52%  2008
• Lack of oversight of parliament, lack of check and balance
• Personal desires get in the way - MPs want to be ministers. Loyalty is crucial

Africa News - 2019 women MPs

• 54 of 57 elected members were men
• Need to increase the presence of women in politics
• Proportion of female candidates actually decreased from 2014 to 2019
• All specially appointed spots were given to women

Botswana’s Parliament Quarantined After Coronavirus Scare

• Everyone in the national assembly had to quarantine
• This included the president
• Soon into the Pandemic
• Health worker conducting health screening for COVID tested positive

Jeune Afrique - 2009 elections

• BDP has a lot of support in rural constituencies - this is why they are able to win
• Ian Khama is turning people away - people believed that he is a little bit authoritarian - dictator like

Elections in 1999

• Paper balloting tried for the first time - using coloured disks earlier on
• State of emergency - President Modae - voters were disqualified
• A law needed to be passed to allow people to vote in the election!!! 60,000 people

Elections in 2019

• 900,000 were registered to vote
• Some concern that minority ethnic are not able to pierce national assembly

Old article about Botswana as an exception

• People drawing comparison between Tswana values - (public discussion, moderation, and nonviolence)
• Debate
• Kgotlas = community meeting in chief’s house
• Members of National Assembly travel to attend Kgotlas - expectation

Constitutionalism in a Time of Crisis Botswana

• State of emergency called twice - first time in 1999 - second time happened in COVID-19 pandemic
• Opposition party members were  against the state of emergency of six months - suspicion of power
• During debate over national emergency - shown on national television
• Vote  in favour o f  state public emergency
• Emergency Powers Act of 1966  -  emergency regulations must also be sent successfully though the national assembly
• In reality,  National Assembly will probably not provide much oversight  because cabinet makes up a large part of the national assembly