Seven members of the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) have expressed interest to contest the impending Serowe West constituency parliamentary seat. If the seven candidates do not agree on a compromise this week, then the party will have to go for a primary election to select the most suitable to represent them.

The Serowe West constituency post fell vacant after the former area Member of Parliament (MP), Tshekedi Khama, missed more than the stipulated three consecutive meetings without notice.

The party president, Biggie Butale on Sunday said: “It is true seven members in our party have shown an expression of interest to contest the Serowe West constituency. The seven members are meeting today (Sunday) to discuss if they can come up with one name or not. This was their decision and they will then inform the electoral board. If they want some members to help them to conclude, then it will be done. Currently, we cannot release the names while those who want to contest are still in talks.”

He told The Monitor that talks amongst the candidates are one of the BPF processes of selection of suitable candidates. He, however, said the party is not going to force the candidates to compromise and have asked them to put the interest of the BPF first. He said their party believes in free and fair elections and therefore they cannot force a member to compromise when she/he does not want to do so.

He said before Wednesday, the name of the candidate will be released and failing which the party would therefore be in a good position to know if it is going for the primaries.

Still on the matter, the party president said they have asked all those who might be in party positions not to use powers given to them by the party to disadvantage anyone. In addition, he said they are doing all things in a way that the process is clean and there are no dirty campaigns against one another. Butale said so far, there is a committee assigned to that area to ensure that everything is going smoothly and party procedures are not jeopardised.

Last week Wednesday, the party closed its doors to those who wanted to contest and gave itself 10 days to come up with the name of an aspirant candidate to stand.