The poll’s got the thumbs up from the country’s neighbours.

Ian Khama’s won a second term as president and will be sworn in tomorrow.

The Botswana Democratic Party takes credit for moving the diamond-rich country from a poor cattle-herding protectorate to one of the richest per-capita African nations.

Ian Khama, son of the indepedendence leader Seretse Kahma, had to fight off a challenge from a new political alliance and a breakaway party.

The BDP won a comfortable parliamentary majority in the 61-member parliament albeit with eight seats fewer than they captured in 2009.

The new opposition capitalised on unemployment caused by diamond prices falling in the global economic crisis that year.

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President Ian Khama ‘s expected to win a second term in office, but he faces a more unified and invigorated opposition.

Local media, that regularly tastes the wrath of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party, calls these parliamentary elections judgement day.

President Ian Khama’s emphasised the party’s successes in its long history in office.
since independence from Britain in 1966.
He’s having a tough time in urban areas, where opposition
parties have made some inroads since the formation of a breakaway party, the
Botswana Movement for Democracy, four years ago.
As a traditional chief of the Bangwato clan he can count on strong
rural support.
He’ll be voting in the central town of Serowe, where his father Seretse and another former president Festus Mogae have their roots.

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The party’s already been in power for nearly half a century. This election it faces its toughest challenge from a breakway party and a previously disparate opposition .

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