Week 63: Elections

On October 24^th there were long lines at the school as community members waited to vote. Botswana has had a parliamentary democracy, modeled after the UK system, since independence in 1966. Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has held the majority in Parliament since independence and remained the majority this election keeping President Sir Seretse Khama Ian Khama in power for another 5 year term (his second and last due to term limits). This election was more heated then recent years and opposition parties now have 20 seats in parliament, which is greater then ever before. Keep an eye out for the next election in Botswana times are a changing.

At the end of the day I went over to the Kgotla, our other polling place, to see how voting was going that side. Civil servants such as teachers are the ones who work and manage the polling stations and thus I wanted to check in with my friends. While chatting with the teachers one of them told me that there was a case of Ebola in New York and then let me read the article on his phone. Just as an fyi there have been more confirmed cases of Ebola in the States then there have been in Botswana (there have been zero Botswana).