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Botswana was a dominant-party state with the Botswana Democratic Party in power for most of its history. [1] Opposition parties were widely considered to have little chance of gaining a parliamentary majority until the 2024 Botswana general election which saw the Umbrella for Democratic Change win a parliamentary majority.
| Party/Alliance | Abbr. | Ideology | Seats in the National Assembly | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Umbrella for Democratic Change | UDC | Social democracy Left-wing populism | 36 / 69 | |
| Botswana Congress Party | BCP | Social democracy Third Way | 15 / 69 | ||
 | Botswana Patriotic Front | BPF | Populism | 5 / 69 | |
| Botswana Democratic Party | BDP | Paternalistic conservatism | 4 / 69 | ||
| 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 | |
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 per cent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north and Zimbabwe to the northeast. With a population of slightly over 2.4 million people and a comparable land area to France, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation-state of the Tswana people, who constitute nearly 80 per cent of the population.
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.
Politics of Slovakia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, with a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in the parliament and it can be exercised in some cases also by the government or directly by citizens.
The Liberal Democratic Party, frequently abbreviated to LDP or Jimintō (自民党), is a major conservative and nationalist political party in Japan. Since its foundation in 1955, the LDP has been in power almost continuously—a period called the 1955 System—except between 1993 and 1994, and again from 2009 to 2012.
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. Sir Seretse Khama was the prime minister from 1965 to 1966, however he later became president of Botswana, and as of 2024 there have been no prime ministers since.
The Botswana Democratic Party,, is a centre-right political party in Botswana. From the country's inaugural election in 1965 until the 2024 general election the party governed the country without interruption for 58 years. At the time of its defeat, the BDP was the longest continuous ruling party in the democratic world.
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties. Any ruling party staying in power for more than one consecutive term may be considered a dominant party. Some dominant parties were called the natural governing party, given their length of time in power.
The Botswana National Front (BNF) is a social democratic political party in Botswana. It was the main opposition party in Botswana from the 1969 elections until the 2024 elections.
The MELS Movement of Botswana was an 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.
Hayes and Harlington is a constituency in the west of London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by John McDonnell of the Labour Party, who also served as the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020 until his suspension and whip withdrawn on 23 July 2024, as a result of voting to scrap the two child benefit cap. He now sits as an Independent MP until the whip is re-established.
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 Afrobarometer is a pan-African, independent, non-partisan research network that measures public attitudes on economic, political, and social matters in Africa. Its secretariat headquarters are in Accra, Ghana, registered as a limited company by guarantee by the Registrar-General’s Department of the Republic of Ghana.
The Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) is a political party in Botswana, founded in 2010 by MPs and other politicians who parted ways with the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) due to differences with Ian Khama, the leader of the BDP and the President of Botswana at the time.
The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is a centre-left to left-wing alliance of political parties in Botswana. Since the 2024 Botswana general election, the UDC has been the governing alliance of political parties.
General elections were held in Botswana on 30 October 2024 to determine the composition of the 13th Parliament of Botswana as well as local councils across the country. Up for election were 61 seats of the National Assembly as well as 609 local council seats, all elected through the first-past-the-post voting system.
Afrobarometer (27 April 2023). Majority of Batswana are not opposed to a dominant-party system, so long as elections are free and fair (PDF) (Report). pp. 1–5. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
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