The Botswana Democratic Party (abbr. BDP, colloquially known as Domkrag) is a centre-right political party in Botswana. From the country's inaugural election in 1965 until the 2024 general election, the party governed the country without interruption for 58 years. At the time of its defeat, the BDP was the longest continuous ruling party in the democratic world.
The party was founded in February 1962 as the Bechuanaland Democratic Party while the country was a British protectorate. It adopted its current name following Botswana's independence in 1966. In its beginnings, it was led by Seretse Khama, the country's first president and his successor Quett Masire. Subsequent presidents of Botswana, Festus Mogae, Ian Khama and Mokgweetsi Masisi, have chaired the party. The party won an overwhelming majority in the first elections under universal suffrage in 1965, leading Khama to become the first president of the new state, a position he held until his death in 1980. The BDP enjoyed virtually unquestioned hegemony for the next three decades, benefiting from the relative success of its economic policy and its pragmatic management of the relations between the different tribal groups of the country. Beginning in the late 1980s, the country's increasing urbanization and the emergence of a middle class less influenced by tribal relations weakened the BDP's support base and strengthened its opponents, while a growing economic slowdown in the 1990s caused the party to suffer harsh electoral setbacks; this led it to implement numerous reforms in an attempt to avoid exacerbating political polarization in the country. In subsequent elections, the BDP retained power with less support, largely benefiting from the first-past-the-post voting and facing an opposition plagued by constant divisions.
Although its sources of voters have varied over the years and itself has suffered some splits that gave rise to other opposition parties, such as the liberal Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and the populist Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), the BDP did not see its hegemony seriously threatened for much of its rule and won every election held since the introduction of universal suffrage in 1965 until 2024. Under its long government, elections in Botswana were considered credible and transparent by the international community.
From independence until the late 2010s, the BDP was particularly strong in the Central District, Seretse Khama's home region and the territory of the Ngwato tribe, while it became weak in urban areas, the North-West and the South. During the presidency of Ian Khama (2008–2018), a polarizing figure within the party itself, the BDP suffered considerable internal crises that led to the formation of the BMD in 2010. The presidency of Mokgweetsi Masisi saw the beginning of a change in Botswana's political landscape, with the departure of Ian Khama from the BDP and the subsequent formation of the pro-Khama Botswana Patriotic Front, which quickly established a sizeable base in the Central District. This led the BDP to lose its traditional dominance in the region and for the first time in history, the opposition managed to win seats there. At the same time, the BDP experienced an unprecedented resurgence in urban areas—largely hostile to Khama—which enabled the party to secure victories in the south and major cities during the 2019 elections. This allowed the BDP to offset its losses in the Central District, ultimately gaining a net seat and retaining its parliamentary majority.
Having been a party of power for nearly six decades, the BDP's ideology is considered by political analysts to be a party with an amorphous character, although in essence, it can be seen as a paternalistic conservative party that defends positions linked to traditionalism, economic nationalism, the market economy, the welfare state and multiparty liberal democracy. The party's historical voter base has been tribal communities, which has, in turn, led the BDP to mirror their conservative views. The internal democratization of the party since 1998 has since increased its ideological breadth.
History Founding years
The BDP was the third political party founded in the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, present-day Botswana. In this region, political development was much more gradual and slow, yet also more peaceful than in other neighboring African countries. An expansion of British central authority and the evolution of tribal government resulted in the establishment of two consultative councils in 1920 to represent Africans and Europeans. The African Council comprised the eight chiefs of the Tswana tribes and some elected members. A European-African Advisory Council formed in 1951 and the colonial constitution of 1961 marked the establishment of a consultative Legislative Council. By 1960, the party system in the region was still very basic, with only the Federal Party existing, mostly oriented towards the small educated population, aiming to achieve independence from the protectorate through peaceful discussion and the African nationalist and socialist-based Bechuanaland People's Party (BPP). The BPP was the first mass party in the country and the first to demand total independence from the colony. However, by the mid-1960s, a series of internal struggles and conflicts between the country's different ethnic groups had affected its political strength.
After a series of meetings, the "Bechuanaland Democratic Party" was established in November 1961 in Lobatse by a group of members of the African Consultative Council, a limited representative body of the protectorate, under the leadership of Seretse Khama, former head of the BaNgwato tribe, with Ketumile Quett Masire as general secretary. The party held its first constitutive congress on 28 February 1962 and began organizing to establish a presence throughout the protectorate's territory. Masire also started publishing the party newspaper, Therisanyo (), in 1963, drawing from his past journalistic experiences.
In everyday language, the term "Domkrag" became more commonly used to refer to the BDP and its supporters. The name originated during the founding stage due to elders' difficulty in pronouncing the word "Democratic" in English. They used the word "Domkrag," which is Afrikaans for a jack used to lift heavy objects off the ground. This led the BDP to adopt the jack as its party symbol, symbolically equating it with its role in "lifting Botswana" from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the fastest-growing economies. Since in Afrikaans, "dom krag" can be translated as "stupid power" or "power of the stupid," opponents used the term derogatorily to refer to the BDP. However, the word was reappropriated by the party itself and today, the word "domkrag" is synonymous with the BDP.
The first political test for the BDP was the general election of 1965, the first election under universal suffrage in the history of the country. The BDP benefited from extensive control over the central territory of the country guaranteed by Khama's prestige as chief of the Ngwato tribe, as well as the growing internal conflicts faced by the BPP, which was mired in inter-ethnic struggles that encouraged the formation of a new party, the Botswana Independence Party (BIP). Khama and Masire focused their speeches on the defense of liberal democracy, a negotiated transition to independence and an economic development plan for the heavily neglected and impoverished colony. The BDP's discourse was seen as much more moderate compared to its African socialist opponents who had a more aggressive rhetoric, which several voters perceived as unrealistic.
The elections took place on the 1st of March and the BDP won an overwhelming victory with 80% of the popular vote and an absolute majority of 28 out of 31 seats, against 14% of the popular vote and just 3 seats for the BPP. Two days later, Khama was sworn in as Prime Minister, becoming the first democratically elected head of government in Bechuanaland. The general elections were followed by local elections on 12 June 1966, just months before the end of the protectorate. The BDP also emerged victorious with 62% of the votes and secured 122 out of 141 members in the local government councils.
Post-independence years (1966–1994) Bechuanaland gained independence as the Republic of Botswana on 30 September 1966. Following transitional agreements between the authorities elected in 1965 and the UK government at the time, Khama assumed the role of President of Botswana, with Masire serving as vice-president and the legislative council transformed into the National Assembly. On the same day, the BDP changed its name to the Botswana Democratic Party.
In contrast to other African leaders of the time, Khama did not seek the establishment of a one-party state with the BDP as the sole legal party. Instead, he preferred to uphold the rule of law and maintain the presence of a "responsible opposition" in Parliament. Likewise, calls to immediately "indigenize" the bureaucracy, which had caused devastating effects on the public service in neighboring countries, were resisted. The government retained foreign expatriates working in the country until suitably qualified local replacements could be found. However, the following decades would be characterized by the overarching hegemony of the BDP. This was explained by the inability of its opponents to unite, being strongly influenced by tribal interests or advocating ideas based on African socialism that the conservative local population found too radical or unattractive. Nevertheless, tribal relations had a significant influence on the BDP, which was virtually the only party with a presence in the Central District (the territory of the Ngwato tribe) for decades. This dominance would continue until the 2019 Botswana general election in which Seretse Khama's son, Ian, would break ranks with the BDP and thereby ending its five-decade stranglehold over the region.
At the time of its independence, Botswana was one of the world's poorest countries, even ranking below several African states. It possessed only 12 kilometers of paved road, 22 university graduates and 100 individuals with completed secondary education. The first years after independence were marked by the rapid development of a national infrastructure. The BDP aimed to implement an economic program that would transform Botswana into a country relying on exports of beef, copper and diamonds. In 1967, the discovery of the Orapa diamond deposits helped make this program viable. However, many social improvements were not visible to the majority of the population until the early 1970s. Simultaneously, the early years witnessed the strengthening of the authority of the Botswana central government over traditional tribal leadership, leading to some resentment among tribal leaders outside the BaNgwato. In this context, Bathoen Gaseitsiwe, chief of the Bangwaketse tribe, denounced the loss of tribal power and resigned his position to engage in politics. He joined the nascent Botswana National Front, led by socialist leader Kenneth Koma. In the context of profound apathy and conflicts with tribal leaders, the BDP suffered a significant loss of votes in the 1969 general elections. Nevertheless, it managed to secure a new two-thirds majority against the BNF, the BPP and the BIP, but electoral participation dropped significantly. With 68.21% of the vote and 24 of 31 seats elected, it would be the party's smallest victory under Khama's leadership. Indeed, the seven opposition MPs elected that year would be the most opposition the BDP would face in the first quarter-century of independence.