Sawt Falasteen - Botswana leader concedes defeat after party drubbed in election

"I wish to congratulate the opposition on their victory and concede the election," President Mokgweetsi Masisi told reporters at a press conference.

Preliminary results from Wednesday's election, with counting still underway, showed three opposition parties had together won at least 31 of 61 seats in the national legislature, according to tallies by AFP and other media.

This meant Masisi's Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which has been in power since independence from Britain in 1966, could not get enough seats to govern.

The result was a major blow for the BDP and Masisi, 63, who took office in 2018 and had been confident of securing a second term.

The results are expected to be confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission later Friday.

More than one million people were registered to vote on Wednesday, from a population of 2.6 million, with concerns about unemployment and mismanagement in Masisi's first term a leading complaint in the arid nation.

"Opposition parties have garnered more than half of the parliamentary seats," the independent Mmegi newspaper wrote on Facebook. "This means ruling Botswana Democratic Party has now officially lost state power."

The left-leaning opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) had already secured more than 24 seats, party official Mike Keakopa told AFP, and was aiming to reach 31 seats to become the outright winner and hand the presidency to its leader, Harvard-educated human rights lawyer Duma Boko.

The two other opposition parties, the Botswana Congress Party and Botswana Patriotic Front, had taken around a dozen seats together.

- 'New dawn' -

"Botswana's new dawn as Boko, UDC rise," Mmegi said in a version of its front page posted on Facebook. "BDP faces crushing parliamentary, council defeat," it wrote.

The UDC swept a separate ballot at Wednesday's polls for the local councils in what was seen as an indication of the trend for the national vote.

Boko, 54, created the UDC in 2012 to unite parties against the bulwark of the BDP. It is the third time that he has run for the presidency.

"CHANGE IS HERE," he wrote on Facebook as his party's strong showing became clear.

A key concern of voters was unemployment which has risen to 27 percent this year and a slump in the economy due in part to weakened diamond sales, Botswana's single biggest revenue earner, with growth projected to slow to one percent in 2024.

There have also been allegations of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement by Masisi's government, while the gap between the rich and poor is one of the largest in the world, according to the World Bank.

"The people in the country are clamouring for change, they are yearning for something refreshingly different," Boko said in an interview with South African channel ENCA in July.

"We are expecting more from this new Botswana," said cleaner, Pelontle Ditshotlo, 41. The BDP had not delivered on its promises and the cost of living was too high, she said.

"When you are in parliament, we need to know that you listen to us, you are with us."

The new government will need to focus on weaning the country off its diamond dependency, stabilise the economy and create new jobs, especially for young people,independent political commentator Olopeng Rabasimane said.

"For us it's a big change. It's a relief," said Sandy Mlotshwa, 22, a waiter. "I want to see if the new system that comes in will make a change for us. If not, then we're going to change it again."

I.Yassin--SF-PST