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Botswana’s post-independence history has been characterised by rapid economic growth and social change. In the changing political atmosphere the citizens have begun to put pressure on political institutions as well as on the state to create more effective representation and more equitable processes for power distribution. This study examines the changing political situation and electoral patterns in the country to assess their bearing on inter-party relations and on the possibility of building stronger political parties and more competitive elections. It does so against a background of decades of single party rule throughout the African continent. Botswana has, however, had relatively free and fair competitive elections for an unbroken period of four decades although it has not yet yielded alternations in government.

Botswana's political parties have been trying to build coalitions but they have failed because they are fragmented, the study reports. It examines the electoral models that are feasible in Botswana’s legal and political context, and interrogates the potential impact of this context on the party system and on inter-party relations in Botswana’s multiparty democracy. The document makes the following findings:

• Voters may be uncertain about which MPs to vote back to parliament, but the Office of the President has a predetermined occupant which is a fundamental contradiction to the principle of elections
• There are no strong opposition leaders and opposition parties tend to fragment eliciting blame from the electorate whose desire for opposition unity is not even clear
• There exists ineffective opposition politics and yet opposition unity is crucial for enhancing greater representation of the voters who are disenchanted with the ruling party
• The media have provided a voice for public demands on institutions to reconstitute themselves into meaningful organs for effective competitive politics
• Pressure is mounting on the ruling party for electoral reforms that would better reflect the increasing disenchantment with its governance performance

The main lessons that can be drawn from this study for future negotiations are that:

• Consultations with the party membership are critical to the negotiation process
• The objectives of the partners must be clearly spelt out to everybody concerned
• The historical specificity of political institutions imported from other cultures has to be acknowledged for future directions for change
• Coalition governments worldwide tend to lead to political instability although a cooperative model that brings one decisive winner into parliament offers much more political stability, if it succeeds.
  

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