Tshere: Holding highest vote share, margin of victory

According to the journals, the UDC, by contrast, recorded a substantial 21-percentage-point increase in its vote share compared to the 2019 election. Thus, Tshere was re-elected with 73% of the vote and a margin of 58 percentage points. This, according to the journals, is the highest vote share and margin of victory attained by a non-BDP candidate in Botswana’s electoral history, surpassing the previous record of 71% set by Bathoen II 55 years prior.

Tshere began his political journey in earnest in 2011, after resigning from his post as head of the Biomedical Engineering unit at Princess Marina Hospital in 2009. In 2008, he says, two major events shaped his political career: a regime change within the BDP when former president Khama took office, and an economic recession. He vividly remembers the situation was akin to what Botswana is experiencing right now.

“The country didn’t have money, there were no medicines and most significantly, there was no electricity, and I remember sitting in my office thinking I cannot make a difference here, I will rather try and seek power issues. I would later realise that politics is powerful enough to make a difference in people’s lives. Hence, I actively joined politics.” Having served in the public service, he thinks it has helped a lot because he knows all the protocols and standard operating procedures, having been in middle management and consistently working at the Ministry headquarters as chairperson of the tender evaluation committee for over two years.

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To him, these have proved helpful since he got to the Ministry he is heading at the moment. He is convinced he gives much clearer guidance and instructions there. It is a clear signal that the government’s purse is empty and that our own behaviour has left veterinary officials fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.

We have been here before. During COVID-19, many of us thought we knew better. We ignored simple rules, we carried on as if the danger was someone else’s problem, and the virus took lives and left our economy on its knees.

We are still broke from that experience. Yet now, with FMD…

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