Botswana Parliament
The Parliament of Botswana consists of the President and the National Assembly.[1] In contrast to other Parliamentary systems, the Parliament elects the President directly (instead of having both a ceremonial President and a Prime Minister who has real authority as head of government) for a set five-year term of office. There are no term limits. The President is both head of State and of Government in Botswana's parliamentary republican system. The current President of Botswana is Ian Khama, who assumed the Presidency on 1 April 2008 and won a full five-year term in the postceding Botswana General elections, which were held on 16 October 2009 and returned his Botswana Democratic Party with a majority of 35 (total of 45) seats in the 61 seat Parliament.
There also exists a body known as Ntlo ya Dikgosi, (The House of Chiefs), which is an advisory body that does not form part of the Parliament.
Botswana is one of the two only nations on the African continent since the end of colonial rule to have achieved a clean record of free and fair elections since independence, having held 10 elections since 1966 without any serious incidents of corruption. The other is Mauritius.
The National Assembly is the legislature Botswana's unicameral Parliament. It is advised by the Ntlo ya Dikgosi (Tswana for "House of Chiefs"), which is not a house of Parliament.
The current National Assembly, formed following elections held on 16 October 2009, has a total of 63 members. 57 members are directly elected in single-member constituencies using the simple majority (or First-past-the-post) system for a term of five years. Four members are co-opted (by secret ballot of the rest of the Assembly) while the remaining two (the President and Attorney-general) are ex officio.
Party | Seats | |
---|---|---|
Botswana Democratic Party | 38 | |
Specially elected MPs | 4 | |
President of Botswana | 1 | |
Attorney General | 1 | |
Botswana Congress Party | 2 | |
Umbrella for Democratic Change | 17 | |
Total |
Previous National Assembly election results
Political Party | Election Year | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1965 | 1969 | 1974 | 1979 | 1984 | 1989 | 1994 | 1999 | 2004 | 2009 | |
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) | 28 | 24 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 31 | 27 | 33 | 44 | 45 |
Botswana National Front (BNF) | - | 03 | 02 | 02 | 04 | 03 | 13 | 06 | 12 | 06 |
Botswana People's Party (BPP) | 03 | 03 | 02 | 01 | 01 | - | - | - | - | - |
Botswana Independence Party (BIP) | - | 01 | 01 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Botswana Congress Party (BCP) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 01 | 01 | 04 |
Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 01 |
Independents | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 01 |
Total | 31 | 31 | 32 | 32 | 34 | 34 | 40 | 40 | 57 | 57 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_Botswana
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