
With a by-election on Saturday and the race for Tlokweng on the final stretch STAFF WRITER DITIRO MOTLHABANE argues that the arrival of former Specially Elected MP Shirley Segokgo has tilted the scale in favour of the opposition. Shirley Segokgo's defiance against her own party, Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), is by far the biggest demonstration of deep seated divisions within the ruling party in the constituency. It is an explosion of long standing internal bickering, which the party has been trying to downplay in previous elections. Once again, these divisions will on Saturday deliver the constituency to the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) more or less in a similar fashion as in the 2014 elections when the late Same Bathobakae walloped Olebile Gaborone by over two thousand votes. Gaborone had defected to the BDP after he was voted in by the Botswana National Front (BNF) in 2009. Shirley's late announcement of her candidacy is synonymous with developments in the contest for the Chairmanship of BDP where Nonofo Molefhi only recently started challenging Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi. Although the Masisi camp pretends they are not worried about his challenger, saying he is exercising his democratic right, deep down in their…