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Thre e of Botswana's opposition parties signed a deal at the weekend pledging to work together to oust the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in next year's general election, an opposition official said yesterday.

"The three parties signed (an agreement) over the weekend, which calls for a joint campaign in the run-up to the next general elections," said Akanyang Magama.

The election alliance was formalised in the eastern city of Francistown after five months of negotiations between the main opposition Botswana National Front (BNF), the Botswana Alliance Movement (BAM) and the Botswana Peoples' Party (BPP).

The BDP has ruled Botswana since independence from Britain in 1966.

It maintains a strong grip on the diamond-rich southern African country and analysts say the only chance for the opposition to gain ground is to form an alliance.

At present the BDP holds 33 of the 40 seats in the national parliament that will come up for election, plus four allocated by the president.

Of the three opposition allies, only the BNF is represented in the assembly and it has just six seats.

The remaining seat is held by the five-year-old Botswana Congress Party (BCP), which split off from the BNF.

"Botswana has demonstrated that they are tired of the BDP government.

If we had failed to unite as the opposition we would have failed the people," Magama said.

"We would like to do as they did in Kenya," he added, referring to the opposition alliance that last year ousted the Kenya Africa Nation Union (Kanu) after it had been in power for nearly 40 years.

Magama said the three parties had divided up the parliamentary constituencies between themselves and would draw up a plan to allocate local constituencies and identify common campaign issues.

"We are going to field one presidential candidate and we have divided the parliamentary constituencies on the basis of the strengths of the parties," he explained.

The opposition election pact allocates the northwest of the country to the BAM, the centre to the BPP and the south to the BNF - its traditional stronghold. – Sapa-AFP.

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