Speaker of the National Assembly of Botswana | |
---|---|
National Assembly of Botswana | |
Status | Presiding officer |
Seat | National Assembly Building, Gaborone |
Constituting instrument | Constitution of Botswana |
Formation | 1965 |
First holder | Alfred Merriweather 1965 |
Deputy | Mabuse Pule |
The Speaker of the National Assembly is the presiding officer of the unicameral Parliament of Botswana. Since Botswana's independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, eight men and women have served as Speaker. The first, Alfred Merriweather, a Scottish missionary and physician, served from 1965 to 1968. The current Speaker, Phandu Skelemani, has been speaker since 5 November 2019.
Name | Office | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
Alfred Merriweather OBE | 1965–1968 | Botswana Democratic Party | |
Albert Frank Lock | 1968–1979 | Botswana Democratic Party | |
James G. Haskins OBE | 1979–1989 | Botswana Democratic Party | |
Moutlakgola P. K. Nwako | 1989–1999 | Botswana Democratic Party | |
Matlapeng Ray Molomo | 1999–2004 | Botswana Democratic Party | |
Patrick Balopi | 2004–2009 | Botswana Democratic Party | |
Margaret Nasha | 2009–2014 | Botswana Democratic Party | |
Gladys Kokorwe | 2014–2019 | Botswana Democratic Party | |
Phandu Skelemani | 2019–present | Botswana Democratic Party | |
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 in Botswana are considered free and fair by observers, the BDP has controlled the National Assembly since independence. Political opposition in Botswana 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.
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 after winning the 2019 general election and returning his Botswana Democratic Party 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.
Phandu Tombola Chaka Skelemani is a Motswana who is the current speaker of the National Assembly of Botswana. He served in the government of Botswana as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2008 to 2014. A member of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Skelemani is a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Botswana and a member of the Pan-African Parliament from Botswana, and he served as Attorney-General of Botswana from 1992 to 2003.
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Margaret Nnananyana Nasha is a Botswana politician who served as the Speaker of the National Assembly from 2009 to 2014. She was the first woman to hold the position.
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