Mixed Feelings On Draft Code of Conduct.

(From Mmegi / The Reporter (Botswana) - AAGM)

Byline: Maureen Odubeng

Election time always raises concerns about the conduct of certain politicians. As such, many countries have come up with codes of conduct for political parties. Even though Botswana has yet to come up with regulations on political behaviour, there have been calls for this behaviour to be regulated.

At an Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) workshop in 2002, the notion of introducing a code of conduct for political parties was tabled.

The IEC has since come up with a draft code of conduct addressing most of the concerns on political behaviour.

Politicians are always complaining about each other's conduct, though most complaints have come from opposition parties, who accuse the ruling party of misconduct.

The most common grievances are voter bribery, use of government resources to conduct ruling party business and use of government media to advance the cause of the ruling party.

These concerns - for the most part - have been addressed in the proposed draft, drawn by the IEC, using the Tanzanian code of conduct as a model.

This code and the Tanzanian code of conduct, was distributed to all political parties requesting them to make extracts, and respond to the IEC by May 2002, but nothing has been done, pertaining finalisation of the code.

The IEC …