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| Constitution |
This article lists political parties in Botswana . Botswana is a dominant-party state with the Botswana Democratic Party in power. Opposition parties are widely considered to have little chance of gaining a parliamentary majority.
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| Constitution |
This article lists political parties in Botswana . Botswana is a dominant-party state with the Botswana Democratic Party in power. Opposition parties are widely considered to have little chance of gaining a parliamentary majority.
| Party | Abbr. | Ideology | Seats in the National Assembly | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Botswana Democratic Party | BDP | Paternalistic conservatism | 38 / 57 | |
| Botswana Congress Party | BCP | Social democracy Third Way | 7 / 57 | ||
 | Botswana Patriotic Front | BPF | Populism | 4 / 57 | |
 | Botswana People's Party (UDC) | BPP | Democratic socialism Pan-Africanism | 1 / 57 | |
 | Botswana National Front (UDC) | BNF | Social democracy Christian left | 1 / 57 | |
| Alliance for Progressives (UDC) | AP | Social liberalism | 1 / 57 | ||
 | Botswana Movement for Democracy | BMD | Right-wing populism | 0 / 57 | |
 | Botswana Republican Party | BRP | Christian democracy Social conservatism | 0 / 57 | |
| Alliance | Abbr. | Ideology | Seats in national assembly | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Umbrella for Democratic Change | UDC | Social democracy Left-wing populism | 7 / 57 | ||
| Alliance name | Abbr. | Ideology | Existence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botswana Alliance Movement | BAM | Progressivism | 1999-2010 | |
| Botswana Independence Party | BIP | 1962-1994 | ||
| Botswana Workers Front | BWF | Nationalism Christian democracy | 1993-? | |
| MELS Movement of Botswana | MELS | Communism Marxism–Leninism Anti-revisionism Pan-Africanism | 1994-2013 | |
| New Democratic Front | NDF | Progressivism | 2003-2004 | |
| Alliance name | Abbr. | Ideology | Existence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Democratic Front | UDF | Nationalism Christian democracy | founded in 1994 | |
| Parliamentary | |
|---|---|
| Extraparliamentary | |
| Defunct | |
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. It is connected by the Kazungula Bridge to Zambia, across the world's shortest border between two countries.
The Batswana, a term also used to denote all citizens of Botswana, refers to the country's major ethnic group. Prior to European contact, the Batswana lived as herders and farmers under tribal rule.
Botswana is a parliamentary republic in which the President of Botswana is both head of state and head of government. The nation's politics are based heavily on British parliamentary politics and on traditional Batswana chiefdom. The legislature is made up of the unicameral National Assembly and the advisory body of tribal chiefs, the Ntlo ya Dikgosi. The National Assembly chooses the president, but once in office the president has significant authority over the legislature with only limited separation of powers. The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) rules as a dominant party; while elections are considered free and fair by observers, the BDP has controlled the National Assembly since independence. Political opposition often exists between factions in the BDP rather than through separate parties, though several opposition parties exist and regularly hold a small number of seats in the National Assembly.
The Government of Botswana often abbreviated as GOB, is the union government created by the constitution of Botswana having the executive, parliament, and the judiciary. The Seat of the Government is located in Gaborone, Botswana. The government is led by the president.
Congress Party may refer to:
The president of the Republic of Botswana is the head of state and the head of government of Botswana, as well as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, according to the Constitution of Botswana.
The Botswana Democratic Party is the governing party in Botswana. Its chairman is the Vice-President of Botswana, Slumber Tsogwane, and its symbol is a lift jack. The party has ruled Botswana continuously since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The BDP is sometimes classified as a paternalistic conservative party and is also a consultative member of the Socialist International since 2014, which is a group including many worldwide social-democratic parties.
The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) is a social democratic political party in Botswana. Founded in 1998 as a result of a split from the Botswana National Front (BNF), the party attracted most of the BNF's sitting MPs due to a leadership dispute involving the BNF's leader, Kenneth Koma.
BDP may refer to:
The Botswana People's Party (BPP), originally the Bechuanaland People's Party, is a political party in Botswana formed in December 1960 during the colonial era. As a result of disappointment with the Legislative Council, under the leadership of Kgalemang T. Motsete, an accomplished music composer and educationist, BPP became the first mass party to agitate for full independence.
The MELS Movement of Botswana was a anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist communist party in Botswana without parliamentary representation. Themba Joina, a practicing lawyer, was the president of the organization. The name MELS is derived from (Karl) Marx, (Friedrich) Engels, (Vladimir) Lenin and (Joseph) Stalin.
The Parliament of Botswana consists of the President and the National Assembly. In contrast to other parliamentary systems, the Parliament elects the President directly for a set five-year term of office. A president can only serve 2 full terms. The President is both Head of state and of government in Botswana's parliamentary republican system. Parliament of Botswana is the supreme legislative authority. The President of Botswana is Mokgweetsi Masisi, who assumed the Presidency on 1 April 2018. In October 2019, the 2019 general election was held which saw the return of the Botswana Democratic Party to the power with a majority of 19 seats in the 65 seat National Assembly.
The National Assembly is the sole legislative body of Botswana's unicameral Parliament, of which consists of the President and the National Assembly. The House passes laws, provides ministers to form Cabinet, and supervises the work of government. It is also responsible for adopting the country's budgets. It is advised by the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, a council of tribal chiefs which is not a house of Parliament.
The vice-president of Botswana is the second-highest executive official in the Government of Botswana. The vice-president is appointed by the president of Botswana among elected members of the National Assembly. The vice-president is the constitutional successor of the president in case of a vacancy. The current vice-president is Slumber Tsogwane.
Seretse Khama Ian Khama is a Botswana politician and former military officer who was the fourth President of the Republic of Botswana from 1 April 2008 to 1 April 2018. After serving as Commander of the Botswana Defence Force, he entered politics and was Vice-President of Botswana from 1998 to 2008, then succeeded Festus Mogae as President on 1 April 2008. He won a full term in the 2009 election and was re-elected in October 2014.
General and local elections were held in Botswana on 24 October 2014. The result was an eleventh straight victory for the Botswana Democratic Party, which won 37 of the 57 elected seats. Incumbent President Ian Khama was sworn in for a second term on 28 October.
The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is a centre-left to left-wing alliance of political parties in Botswana.
The 2024 Botswana general election will be held to determine the composition of the 13th Parliament of Botswana as well as local councils across the country. Up for election are 61 seats of the National Assembly as well as 490 local council seats, all elected through the first-past-the-post voting system.
