A total of seven parties will contest 40 seats on Saturday, with a further four MPs being appointed later by the president. Despite the country being one of Africa's success stories, vast mineral wealth and foreign reserves of some six billion dollars, between 40 and 50 percent of Batswana are living below the poverty line, economists say. The World Bank has classified this country as a middle-income country. BDP Executive Secretary and director of elections, Botsalo Ntuane, disputes the poverty figures, pointing out that Batswana are far better off than citizens of many other African countries. The BNP has delivered in government.
People have access to improved medical care.
If you go to the remotest village you will find a telephone line, that is not the case in neighbouring countries. In Angola, if a child gets born in the gutter, it dies in the gutter. It has created a lot of disillusionment and despondancy. A lot of people who would otherwise have voted for the opposition didn't bother to register because they feel it would have been a wasted vote. The government in Gaborone, a city festooned with anti-AIDS billboards and stickers, has come under attack for its failure to act sooner to stem the rise in the pandemic.