Gender in the 2009 Botswana elections

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the gender, elections and media project run by Gender Links, in partnership with the Gender and Media Southern Africa Network (GEMSA) and the Gender and Media Diversity Centre (GMDC) in the run-up to the Botswana elections in October 2009.

The project forms part of a region-wide campaign to increase women’s political representation and participation in line with the 2008 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development which aims to achieve gender parity in all areas of decision-making by 2015. Botswana has yet to sign the Protocol.

So far South Africa has the highest number of women in parliament at 43.4%, followed by Mozambique with 34.8%. The outcome of the 2009 Botswana national election has led to calls for a more concerted effort by civil society to urge the government to adopt the Protocol, which has a target of 50% women in all areas of decision-making by 2015. Botswana currently has just 7.9% women in parliament, down from 11% in the previous election.

This project covered all the SADC countries which had elections in 2009 and 2010. These include: South Africa, Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Mauritius and Tanzania.

Botswana conducted its national elections on 16 October 2009 using the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system. There were 50 constituencies being contested. These combined both parliamentary and local government polls. The President is elected by the National Assembly. The three main parties: the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP); Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Congress Party, put forward male candidates for the presidency.