Reforming the Constitution in a Developing Country: How Mismanaging Constitutional Reforms Led to Electoral Loss in Botswana

Zibani Maundeni, Batlang Seabo and Letshwiti Tutwane

Journal of Politics and Law, 2025, vol. 18, issue 3, 20

Abstract: This paper is a political science attempt to explain how mismanaging constitutional reforms could lead to electoral loss in a country organising free and fair elections. The citizens of Botswana long asked for constitutional reforms, and when these came through a Presidential Constitutional Reform Commission and through an official government report in 2024, the organised population (through opposition political parties, NGOs, trade unions, youth organisations and others) rejected it and Parliament also failed to approve it, setting grounds for the electoral defeat of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). We employ a methodology that helps us expand the debate by comparing, established and hybrid presidentialism, and established and hybrid parliamentarism at an international level. An assumption of power by the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) in October 2024, has created a new dynamism that could see Botswana reengaging in meaningful constitutional reforms.

Date: 2025
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