ABSTRACT

This article argues the fallout between Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his predecessor Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama is demonstration of the need for the country to reform its political system to accommodate direct election of the president. This would lessen seeds for political instability in the future. The central argument in the paper is that the system of ‘automatic succession’, wherein whoever is vice president automatically assumes the presidency when a sitting president’s tenure comes to an end, breeds a sense of entitlement and expectation between the alternators of power. The main conclusion of the paper is that the entitlement that comes with ‘automatic succession’ to the presidency is some form of debt of gratitude from the incumbent to their predecessor. This burden of expectation threatens to diminish the autonomy of an incumbent president and could birth political instability. The paper uses the Khama-Masisi transfer of power as its case in point.

摘要

这篇文章认为，博茨瓦纳总统莫格韦维西·马西西（Mokgweetsi Masisi）和他的前任中将塞雷兹·哈马中将之间的影响表明，该国需要改革其政治制度以容纳总统的直接选举。这将减少未来政治不稳定的种子。本文的中心论点是，“自动接班人”制度（在任总统任职期满时，由谁担任副总统而自动担任总统职位）会在权力交织者之间产生一种应有的权利和期望。本文的主要结论是，“自动继承”总统职位所享有的权利是从任职者到其前任的某种形式的感激之情。这种期望负担有可能削弱现任总统的自治权，并可能导致政治动荡。本文以Khama-Masisi的权力转移为例。