Botswana’s president-elect Duma Boko is a human rights lawyer who spent three decades in opposition fighting to dislodge the party in power for nearly 60 years before clinching his surprise landslide victory.
The 54-year-old Harvard graduate inspired voters in the arid southern African country to turn out in large numbers for Wednesday’s elections that ended the six-decade rule of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which took power on independence.
His left-wing coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) swept up more than half the seats in parliament, enough to form a government and run the diamond-rich country of some 2.6 million people.
“It shocked me in terms of the numbers and the intensity with which people attended to the vote,” Boko told the independent Mmegi media outlet Friday.
“I am truly humbled and I can only pledge to them that I will do the very best. Thank you very much to the nation, thank you very much to the immediate former president.”
Boko replaces outgoing president Mokgweetsi Masisi, nearly 10 years his senior, who conceded defeat on Friday when it became clear the BDP would not get enough seats in parliament to form a government.
– Ambitious, humble –
Boko was born in December 1969, three years after independence, in a village 200 kilometres (124 miles) north of the capital Gaborone.
After graduating from the University of Botswana in 1993 with a law degree, he obtained a master’s at Harvard Law School in 1995. He has also established his own law firm.
He entered politics as a young man when he joined the Botswana National Front — the main opposition to the BDP since independence — later becoming its leader in 2010.
Two years later, he formed the UDC coalition to fortify opposition efforts to stand up to the ruling party.
In the 2014 general election, Boko led the UDC to a second-place finish, winning 17 seats.
The alliance took 15 seats in 2019, although Boko lost his own. The group claimed to have been denied victory because of rigging in favour of the BDP but a court threw out the case.
Described as driven and earnest, Boko has resonated with Botswana’s youth, echoing calls for change that would give them opportunities for work and address the large inequality between rich and poor.
“He’s very ambitious,” said Keith Jefferis, an independent economist and former Botswana government official.
“I remember him saying 10 years ago: ‘I’m going to be president of this country, just you watch.’
“He’s a smart guy, he’s got a strange mixture of humility and arrogance and we’ll see which one comes through,” he told AFP.
Christopher Vandome, senior research fellow at the Chatham House Africa Programme, said Boko was seen as a constitutionalist, who is keen on rules and democratic process.
However, it is still unclear what his economic policy will be as leader, he told AFP.
A slump in Botswana’s diamond-driven economy is considered one of the major challenges facing the country.
“For Boko and the UDC, the mandate is loud and clear; deliver on your promises, or risk to suffer the same fate as President Masisi and the BDP,” said independent political commentator Olopeng Rabasimane.
“In all fairness, the task before him is mammoth, but not insurmountable. The ball is in his court and the clock is ticking.”
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