Botswana president concedes election defeat, BDP loses power after 58 years

Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has conceded defeat as preliminary results showed his governing party lost its parliamentary majority after nearly six decades in power.
Masisi’s concession on Friday came before the final results were announced, with his Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) trailing in fourth place, according to tallies by the electoral commission.
The president, who was seeking a second five-year term in Wednesday’s election, said he would “step aside”.
“I wish to congratulate the opposition on their victory and concede the election,” Masisi told a news conference.
The results are expected to be confirmed by the electoral commission later on Friday, but early counts showed that three opposition parties had together won at least 31 of 61 seats in the legislature.
Under the country’s electoral system, the first party to take 31 seats will be declared the winner, install its candidate as president and form a government.
The BDP has governed the diamond-rich Southern African nation since 1966.
The main opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) held a strong lead in the partial results, making its leader, Duma Boko, the likely candidate for president.
Masisi said he had called Boko to inform him he was conceding defeat.
UDC had already secured more than 24 seats, party official Mike Keakopa told the AFP news agency, and was aiming to reach 31 seats to become the outright winner and hand the presidency to human rights lawyer Boko.
The two other opposition parties, the Botswana Congress Party and Botswana Patriotic Front, had won about a dozen seats together.
This means the BDP has officially lost the election.
Masisi, a 63-year-old former high school teacher and UNICEF worker, had been widely expected to keep his parliamentary majority and serve a second and final term.
Often held up as one of Africa’s greatest success stories, Botswana ranks among the wealthiest and most stable democracies on the continent.
But a global downturn in demand for mined diamonds, which account for more than 80 percent of Southern African exports, has taken a toll on the economy.
Economic growth is expected to slow to 1 percent in 2024, according to the International Monetary Fund, down from 2.3 percent last year and 5.5 percent in 2022.
Unemployment has risen to 27 percent, with an even greater share of young people out of work.
Before the vote, the BDP had acknowledged the need to diversify the economy, pledging to develop new drivers of growth such as agriculture and tourism.