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 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 National Front (BNF) is a social democratic political party in Botswana. It has been the main opposition party in Botswana since the 1969 elections.
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.
The MELS Movement of Botswana is an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist communist party in Botswana without parliamentary representation. Themba Joina, a practicing lawyer, is the president of the organization. The name MELS is derived from (Karl) Marx, (Friedrich) Engels, (Vladimir) Lenin and (Joseph) Stalin.
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.
General elections were held in Botswana on 15 October 1994, alongside simultaneous local elections. The result was a victory for the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which had won every election since 1965. However, the elections also saw a strong performance from the Botswana National Front (BNF), which tripled its number of MPs and won all four seats in the capital Gaborone.
General elections were held in Botswana on 7 October 1989, alongside local elections. The result was the sixth straight landslide victory for the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which won 31 of the 34 elected seats.
Seretse Khama Ian Khama is a Motswana 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.
The Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) is a right-wing populist 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 Botswana Workers Front was a political party in Botswana. The party was founded by Shawn Nthaile in September 1993 at a special congress in Mahalapye, following his departure from the Botswana National Front. Nthaile charged that he had been kept out of senior positions in BNF due to his ethnic affiliation. Through the BWF Nthaile sought to promote the interests of labourers and his own Bakgalagadi ethnic group. The symbol of BWF was the hammer and sickle. The party was based in Jwaneng. At the time of the 1994 parliamentary election BWF joined the United Democratic Front, a coalition of parties opposed to both the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and the BNF. No BWF nor any other UDF candidate was able to get elected.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) was a coalition of opposition parties in Botswana, formed ahead of the 1994 parliamentary election. The UDF consisted of the MELS Movement of Botswana, the Botswana Workers Front and the Social Democratic Party. UDF opposed both the ruling Botswana Democratic Party and opposition Botswana National Front. No UDF candidate was able to get elected.
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 alliance of political parties in Botswana.
General elections were held in Botswana on 23 October 2019 to elect MPs and local government councillors. Despite a high profile split in the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in May 2019 when former President Ian Khama left the party and switched his support to the new Botswana Patriotic Front, the BDP's vote share increased to almost 53% as the party won 38 of the 57 elected seats in the National Assembly, a gain of one compared to the 2014 elections. The elections were the twelfth straight victory for the BDP.
Botswana held a general election in October 2019. Though it was more competitive than previous elections, it resulted in a victory for the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and won an addition term for President Mokgweetsi Masisi. Botswana saw an escalation in the rivalry between Masisi and his predecessor Ian Khama, with Khama leaving the Botswana Democratic Party to support the Botswana Patriotic Front and the Umbrella for Democratic Change. Following the BDP's victory, opposition leaders challenged the results of the election.
The Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) is a populist political party in Botswana formed in July 2019 by members of the Botswana Democratic Party who split from the party because of a high-profile rivalry between former President Ian Khama and Mokgweetsi Masisi.
General elections will be held in Botswana in 2024 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 unicameral National Assembly as well as 490 local council seats, all elected through the first-past-the-post voting system. Ever since the first election in 1965, the Botswana Democratic Party has held a majority of seats in the National Assembly and thus governed alone for 57 years without interruption, making Botswana a dominant-party system.
