Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0047/00470.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 21KB | 443 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00470}
$Pretitle{404}
$Title{Botswana
Chapter 4A.   The Executive}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Government of Botswana}
$Affiliation{Government of Botswana}
$Subject{president
office
election
assembly
functions
section
vice-president
candidate
elected
parliament}
$Date{1988}
$Log{}
Country:     Botswana
Book:        Constitution of Botswana
Author:      Government of Botswana
Affiliation: Government of Botswana
Date:        1988

Chapter 4A.   The Executive

Part I. The President and the Vice-President

Office of President

     30. There shall be a President of the Republic of Botswana who shall be
the Head of State.

First President

     31. (1) The first President shall be the person who immediately before
30th September, 1966 holds the office of Prime Minister under the
Constitution.

     (2) The first President shall be deemed to have assumed office at the
coming into operation of this Constitution.

Election of President after dissolution of Parliament

     32. (1) Whenever Parliament is dissolved an election shall be held to the
office of President in such manner as is prescribed by this section and,
subject thereto, by or under an Act of Parliament.

     (2) Nominations in the election of a President shall be delivered to the
returning officer on such day and at such time as may be prescribed by or
under any law for the time being in force in Botswana; the nomination of a
candidate in an election of a President shall not be valid unless it is
supported, in such manner as may be prescribed by or under an Act of
Parliament, by not less than one thousand persons registered as voters for the
purpose of elections to the Assembly.

43 of 1969

     (3) The following provisions shall then apply-

     (a) a person nominated as a Parliamentary candidate may, at the time of
his nomination and subject to the provisions of paragraph (b), declare in such
manner as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament which of the
candidates in the election of President he supports, but the nomination of a
Parliamentary candidate shall be valid notwithstanding that the nomination
paper does not contain such a declaration;

     (b) such a declaration shall not be made in relation to any Presidential
candidate unless that candidate has signified, in such manner as may be
prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament, his consent to the making of a
declaration in his favour by that Parliamentary candidate;

     (c) where the Parliamentary election is contested in any constituency a
poll shall be taken in that constituency at which the votes shall be given by
ballot, and for the purposes of that poll any Parliamentary candidate who
declared support in accordance with paragraph (a) for a particular
Presidential candidate shall use the same voting colour and symbol, if any, as
may have been allocated under any law for the time being in force in Botswana
to that Presidential candidate for the purposes of the Presidential election;

     (d) the returning officer shall declare to be elected as President any
candidate for whom support has been declared in accordance with paragraph (a)
above by not less than such number of persons elected as Members of the
National Assembly in the Parliamentary election as corresponds to more than
half the total number of seats for Elected Members in the Assembly, and if
there is no such person the returning officer shall declare that no candidate
has been elected.

     (4) Parliament may make provision whereby the time for nominating
Presidential candidates may be extended in the event of there being no
qualified candidate nominated at the expiration of the time for the delivery
of such nominations.

     (5) Where, at the expiration of the time for the delivery of nominations
in the election of a President, more than one qualified candidate is validly
nominated and any of those candidates dies before the commencement of the poll
in the Parliamentary election, the poll in the Parliamentary election shall
be countermanded, fresh nominations of Parliamentary candidates shall take
place in every constituency and a fresh election of a President shall be held
in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section.

     (6) Where-

     (a) any candidate in an election of a President dies during the period
commencing with the taking of the poll in the Parliamentary election and
ending when the result of the election has been ascertained and that candidate
would, but for his death, have been entitled to have been declared elected as
President under snbsection (3) of this section; or

43 of 1969

     (b) the returning officer declares in accordance with the provisions of
subsection (3) (c) of this section that no candidate has been elected, the new
National Assembly shall meet on such day (not being more than fourteen days
after the result of the election is ascertained or, as the case may be, the
declaration that no candidate has been elected) as the Speaker shall appoint,
and shall elect a person to the office of President in such manner as is
prescribed by section 35 (5) of this Constitution and subject thereto by or
under an Act of Parliament. Such an election shall take place before the
election of the Specially Elected Members of the National Assembly.

     (7) A person elected to the office of President under this section shall
assume that office on the day upon which he is declared elected.

     (8) Without prejudice to the provisions of section 92 of this
Constitution, an Elected Member of the National Assembly may, in the event of
there being one or more successful election petitions following a general
election, move, at the first sitting of the Assembly after the resultant
by-elections have been decided and the Members thereby elected have taken
their seats, that the President does not enjoy the support of the majority of
the Elected Members of the Assembly; and in the voting on that question the
Specially Elected Members of the Assembly shall have no vote. If it appears as
a result of the voting on that question that the President does not enjoy the
support of a majority of the Elected Members of the Assembly, the office of
President shall become vacant.

     (9) Any Elected Member of the Assembly may give notice to the President
that he intends to move in the Assembly a motion under the last foregoing
subsection and notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution the
President shall not after receipt of any such notice be empowered to dissolve
Parliament before the conclusion of the sitting of the Assembly mentioned in
the last foregoing subsection.

     (10) If the office of President becomes vacant in accordance with
subsection (8) of this section the seats of the Specially Elected Members of
the Assembly shall also become vacant, and the election of a person to the
office of President shall take place before the election of the Specially
Elected Members.

     (11) In this section-

     "Parliamentary candidate" means a candidate in the Parliamentary
election;

     "the Parliamentary election" means the general election to elect those
Members of the National Assembly who are referred to in section 58 (1) (a) of
this Constitution following any dissolution of Parliament;

     "Presidential candidate" means a candidate for the office of President;

     "the returning officer" means the returning officer specified in section
38 of this Constitution.

Qualification for election as President

     33. A person shall be qualified for election as President if, and shall
not be so qualified unless, he -

     (a) is a citizen of Botswana;

     (b) has attained the age of thirty years; and

     (c) is qualified to be elected as a Member of the Assembly.

Tenure of office of President

     34. (1) The President shall cease to hold the office of President if at
any time during his tenure of office any circumstances arise that would, if he
were not a member of the National Assembly, cause him to be disqualified