Parliament of Botswana

Botswana

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Botswana

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The Parliament Building in Gaborone

The Parliament of Botswana consists of the President and the National Assembly. In contrast to other Parliamentary systems, the Parliament elects the President directly (instead of having both a ceremonial President and a Prime Minister who has real authority as head of government) for a set five year term of office. There are no term limits. The President is both head of State and of Government in Botswana's parliamentary republican system. The current President of Botswana is Ian Khama, who assumed the Presidency on 1 April, 2008 and won a full five year term in the postceding Botswana General elections, which were held on 16 October 2009 and returned his Botswana Democratic Party with a majority of 35 (total of 45) seats in the 61 seat Parliament.

• The House of Chiefs is an advisory body that does not form part of the Parliament.

Botswana is the only nation on the African continent since the end of colonial rule to have achieved a clean record of free and fair elections since independence, having held 10 elections since 1966 without any serious incidents of corruption. Botswana is considered to be, along with post apartheid South Africa, the most democratic nation in Africa.