By AFP

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Incumbent president Mokgweetsi Masisi on Friday won a five-year term in Botswana's elections which saw his ruling party secure more than 51 percent of parliamentary votes, the chief justice said.

"Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi is elected President of the Republic of Botswana," chief justice Terrence Rannowane announced.

The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which has ruled since independence from Britain in 1966, was declared the winner after attaining the minimum 29 parliamentary seats required to form a government after Wednesday's vote.

Counting for the remaining seats was still underway, the chief justice said adding that "sufficient" results had been declared to announce that Masisi the winner.

“Although counting is on-going, the numbers declared as winners allow me to determine which presidential candidate has obtained the required minimum support of Members of Parliament to be declared president of the republic,” added Rannowane.

The BDP retained key constituencies in the western and northern parts of the country, while the opposition made inroads into the central districts, which were previously the ruling party’s strongholds.

South African analyst Thamsanqa Hlase, believes the BDP benefited from divisions in the opposition, which saw the parties fielding different candidates.

“The early results show that (Lt Gen) Khama might just have been a mere spoiler,” he said. “Remember his Botswana Patriotic Front only fielded 16 candidates in the parliamentary elections. It might be another case of a split vote giving the BDP a lifeline like was the case in 2014.”

In the previous polls, the BDP lost the popular vote after it got 47 per cent but benefited from the country’s first-past-the-post—an electoral system is which voters indicate on a ballot the candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins.

The ruling party won 37 seats against the opposition’s 20, which gave it the right to form a government.

“It is likely that many people voted for the BDP because of the UDC alliance with Lt Gen Khama who was not very popular in his last year in power,” Mr Hlase added.

“However, Botswana politics will never be the same again. It is the beginning of a realignment.”

Masisi, 58, became president in April 2018 as the hand-picked successor to Ian Khama, who resigned.

The BDP suffered a seismic jolt in May when Khama accused Masisi, his former deputy, of autocracy.

Khama threw his weight behind the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), once his fiercest critic.

Then in May, he formed his own party, the Botswana Patriotic Front, which fielded candidates in only 19 of the 57 constituencies.

After casting his ballot in his natal village of Moshupa, 65 kilometres (40 miles) west of Gaborone on Wednesday, Masisi admitted it had been "the toughest election we have had to fight".

Polling generally proceeded smoothly across the vast, but sparsely populated country of 2.2 million people, according to the electoral commission, despite delays in clearing voters at some polling stations.

Botswana is seen across Africa as a beacon of continuity and democracy.