Political Reforms

A democracy can only be strong and alive if all three pillars of the state are separated and fully independent, i.e. the executive (Government), the legislative (Parliament) and the judiciary. In the institutional setting of Botswana, Parliament is the weakest of the three pillars.

In this programme area FES falls the support to Parliament. The cooperation is aimed at increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Parliament with special regard to its legislative and monitoring functions. In 2002 FES initiated a comprehensive study to elaborate concrete recommendations as to how to reform Parliamentary procedures and to increase the independence of Parliament. The implementation of the study is still pending. Other programmes, such as “Parliamentary Briefings” focus on the capacity building for Parliamentarians. A Parliamentary Conference on the occasion of the International Day of Democracy was held in Gaborone and was supported of the FES.

Another important partner in the strengthening of democratic institutions is the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), established in 1997 as "an autonomous non-partisan body whose primary purpose is to conduct free, fair and correct elections efficiently and effectively in accordance with the best electoral principles and practices".

FES Botswana started cooperating with the IEC shortly after the 1999 elections, which were characterised by a very low voter turnout. With the support of FES, a comprehensive study upon "Voter Apathy" was conducted. The results of the report were published in 2002 and have since then been the basis of a lively debate. Special concern was given to the fact that particularly young people and women abstained from voting in large numbers.

The focus of co-operation with the IEC lies on activities to increase participation of eligible voters; first in the registration process and then in the actual casting of votes. For the preparations of the elections in 2009 a nationwide tour was organized to discuss guidelines for transparent elections and to train Trainers for election observations.

With the Democracy Research Project (DRP) of the University of Botswana as partner the regular “Democracy Forum” addresses university students and the general public in open debates on topics such as electoral reform, coalition politics, reform of democratic institutions etc.