Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) politicians aspiring to contest Bulela Ditswe in opposition held constituencies on October 21 are running helter skelter exerting pressure on Government to block civil servants from participating. On Friday, two months after Justice Modiri Letsididi ruled that public officers are free to vote in political party primary elections, senior state counsel Matlhogonolo Phuthego pleaded with the Court of Appeal to expedite a hearing of the appeal. Appearing before Justice Isaac Lesetedi alongside state attorney Oteng Thamuku, Phuthego proposed that the appeal be heard in two weeks before political parties hold primary elections in the last quarter of 2017, particularly the BDP's Bulela Ditswe scheduled for October 21, four weeks from now. Deputy Secretary General of the BDP, Shaw Kgathi, has deposed an affidavit supporting the appeal, which is moved by his colleague – Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration Minister Eric Molale. Molale, then Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), blocked civil servants from participating in party primary elections shortly before Bulela Ditswe 2013 through a Directive dated 28 November 2013. The decision was a self-preservation strategy when the ruling BDP was facing a backlash from civil servants following the ill-fated 2011 public sector strike. It…