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The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has won the general election after securing 29 national assembly seats, representing 51 percent of the vote, the chief justice announced on Friday.
Botswana voted on Wednesday to elect 57 national assembly and 490 local government representatives, with the candidate of the winning party set to become president.
“Although vote counting is still ongoing, the numbers of parliament seats attained so far by the BDP obliges me to declare Mokgweetsi Masisi as the elected president of Botswana,” said Chief Justice Terrence Rannowane.
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President Masisi had been presented with a surprising challenge after former president Ian Khama broke away and announced his support for the opposition coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
Masisi campaigned on his record on tackling corruption, such as making a declaration of assets obligatory for public sector officials, and slashing bureaucracy for small businesses.
Khama stormed out of the BDP in May after accusing Masisi – his deputy until last year – of autocracy.
Khama hand-picked Masisi as his successor when he stepped down last year following two terms in office in the diamond-rich country. But Masisi moved away from some of Khama’s policies, including by loosening restrictions on elephant hunting to appeal to rural voters.
About 931,000 of the country’s 2.2 million people registered to vote in the parliamentary and local elections.
