Botswana Voters Hand Governing Party a Stunning Rebuke

Africa|Botswana Voters Hand Governing Party a Stunning Rebuke

The party that has governed Botswana since it became independent in 1966 received a stunning rebuke in national elections this week, losing its majority in Parliament for the first time, according to results announced on Friday morning.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi, leader of the governing Botswana Democratic Party, conceded defeat at a news conference on Friday, and by evening, his successor, Duma Boko, was sworn in.

Mr. Boko is a 54-year-old human rights lawyer and graduate of Harvard Law School who leads the main opposition party, the Umbrella for Democratic Change.

Botswana, a southern African nation of about 2.5 million people, is known for its political stability and diamond mining, which has produced tremendous wealth as well as friction over how to distribute it equally.

“I pledge with every fiber of my being that I will do everything I can, not to fail, not to disappoint, appreciating always the enormity of the responsibility bestowed upon me by the people of this republic,” Mr. Boko said after his swearing in.

Botswana has had one of the most successful economic turnarounds that Africa has seen since the fall of British colonial rule. It grew wealthy from diamond production and earned a reputation for fiscal prudence and good governance, qualities that many in the country now say are on the decline.

The governing party lost support amid an economic slump fueled largely by a slowdown in the global diamond trade, which accounts for the largest share of the nation’s economy. The mining giant De Beers gets most of its stones from Botswana, whose diamond output is rivaled only by Russia.

Critics also have blamed Botswana’s economic struggles on mismanagement and corruption within the governing party.

“I couldn’t be happier to see us out of the rule of Masisi and his administration,” said Tumelo Eetsi, a 33-year-old teacher living in Gaborone, the capital. “I just wanted to see change for this nation, and I’m hopeful we’ll have a fresh start on many things.”

The governing party’s defeat adds to a list of long-dominant political parties in southern Africa that have lost public support in recent years. In May, the African National Congress, which has governed South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994, lost its parliamentary majority for the first time.

Analysts say the lofty reputations that many African political parties earned during the fight against colonialism no longer resonate with a growing population of young voters who are mostly concerned about getting a good education and finding work.

Botswana’s unemployment rate has climbed to nearly 28 percent, and among young people it is closer to 38 percent. The International Monetary Fund expects the country to see growth of just 1 percent this year, down from 5.5 percent in 2022, largely because of the global diamond slump.

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