Botswana election results solidify LGBTQ rights in southern Africa
President-elect Duma Boko represented Botswana LGBTQ advocacy group Legabibo
A landslide election victory has set the stage for LGBTQ rights supporter Duma Boko to become the next president of Botswana, where homosexuality was decriminalized in 2019.
The election was decided on economic issues, not on LGBTQ rights.
In the past, as an attorney, Boko has represented the Botswanan LGBTQ rights group Legabibo in its successful fight for official govvernemt recognition. As a candidate, he has supported LGBTQ rights.
Defeated incumbent President Mokgweetsi Masisi had also acknowledged the human rights of LGBTQ people. In 2022, he met with representatives of Legabibo, vowed to protect LGBT persons’ rights and to abide by the court rulings that overturned laws against same-sex intimacy between consenting adults.
In southern Africa, anti-homosexuality laws have been overturned or repealed in Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. Same-sex intimacy remains illegal in 30 of Africa’s 54 nations.
On Friday, Nov. 1, Masisi acknowledged defeat after early results showed that his party was losing in a landslide victory for Boko’s Botswana Democratic party.
High unemployment in the southern African country contributed to Boko’s victory, which came on his third campaign for president.
