Botswana’s coalition of opposition parties has slammed the country’s electoral body for travelling to Zimbabwe to benchmark its election procedures, reported VOA.
In business, benchmarking is the process of measuring business performance against competitors and high-performing companies.
A delegation from Botswana’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) visited Zimbabwe from 13 to 14 February ahead of the country’s general election later this year.
Utloile Silaigwana, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chief elections officer, told journalists in Harare that Botswana’s Independent Electoral Commission’s focus was on “management of electoral activities and how to conduct elections.”
Sialigwana also said Botswana’s visit is an endorsement of ZEC’s conduct of the elections.
However, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa, spokesperson for the opposition Botswana National Front, expressed disappointment at the commission’s two-day trip to Zimbabwe. Said Motshegwa:
One would have expected the IEC to benchmark in more developed democracies and systems with effective electoral institutions as an indication that they want to achieve excellence in their mandate.
The mission of Botswana’s IEC benchmarking in Zimbabwe is simple: Just to learn how to rig an election.
Lawrence Ookeditse of the Botswana Patriotic Front said Zimbabwe cannot run credible elections. He said:
We know that Zimbabwe for the past two decades has not been in a position where they have run credible elections. The election has been stolen time after time.
We see a situation where in the middle of an electoral process, the IEC in Botswana says they are going to Zimbabwe to benchmark.
If you want to benchmark to run elections, you are not going to go to Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, addressing Parliament on Tuesday, Botswana Vice President Slumber Tsogwane, said there was no need to disparage Zimbabwe. He said:
It [Zimbabwe] is a sovereign state, and these people are our neighbours. Yes, some [election] observers might have said what they said, but this has been said about many [other] countries.
But we can’t come here and castigate Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a sovereign state, [which] is doing as well as any other country. If you have nothing to say good about Zimbabwe, just keep quiet.
Silaigwana said other electoral organisations from the region, including from Lesotho and Ethiopia, have visited to benchmark on conducting elections.
Zimbabwe’s 2023 general elections were criticised by international observers who said they fell short of international standards and were conducted in an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.
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