President Mokgweetsi Masisi, the country's leader since 2018, acknowledged his defeat on Friday morning, even before the final result was presented.
I look forward to attending the upcoming inauguration and cheering on my successor. He will have my support, he said during a press conference.
A few hours later, Chief Justice Terence Rannowane announced that the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) had won a majority of the seats.
UDC's Duma Boko will thus become the president of the country with nearly 2.7 million inhabitants. He is educated at Harvard University in the United States and has a background as a human rights lawyer.
I am truly honored and I can only promise to do my best. Thank you so much to the nation, thank you so much to the former president, he says to the newspaper Mmegi.
Masisi's party came in fourth place. The BDP has ruled the country in southern Africa since independence from the United Kingdom in 1966.
Botswana is often described as one of Africa's most functioning democracies. At independence, the country was one of the poorest in the world, but has since developed into a middle-income country – largely thanks to democratic stability and rich diamond finds. However, income disparities are large.
