Duma Boko defends predecessor as crowd boos him during power transition

Botswana’s new president, Duma Boko, stood by his predecessor as the crowd booed him during his swearing-in ceremony in Gaborone on Friday.

The new president praised his predecessor’s “statesmanship”.

“Please give him some love,” Boko told the stadium.

Boko was sworn in as the country’s new president after his landslide election victory kicked out the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which had been in power for nearly 60 years.

On Friday, Boko (54) took the oath in front of several thousand people in the national stadium just nine days after his Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) crushed the BDP at the ballot.

Boko’s party beat the Botswana Democratic Party, which governed for six decades.

“For nearly three score years, our democracy remained unbroken, unproven and untested.

“On 30 October this year, together, we tested this democracy,” Boko said in a speech.

“It is with pride, and perhaps even a tinge of relief, that I can proudly say we have passed this test with flying colours,” he said to cheers from the crowd.

“Together, we usher in a new political dawn.”

Last week, Boko’s left-leaning UDC won 36 seats in the parliament, compared to just four for the conservative BDP, in a stunning reversal for the party that had governed diamond-rich Botswana since its independence from the United Kingdom in 1966.

Former president Mokgweetsi Masisi, who conceded defeat two days after the vote as his party’s colossal defeat became clear, was in the audience alongside leaders of other regional countries, including Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.