Although the Botswana National Front (BNF) has recently announced its team to negotiate an electoral pact with the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and the BMD (February 2011, The political scene), it remains embroiled in internal wrangling. The BNF youth league has angrily denounced the inclusion of Kirsten Marobela in the team, reopening an unresolved rift over the status of those who were expelled from the party in 2009 because of their opposition to Otsweletse Moupo, the party leader at that time. The youth league even warned of large-scale defections to other parties. Moreover, a failed attempt by a party activist to register as a candidate in a local council by-election where the BNF leadership had agreed to support the BCP indicates that hostility to co-operation remains. This is especially the case at grass-roots level, where bitterness towards the BCP-which split from the BNF in 1998-remains strong and where the BMD is regarded as the BDP without Mr Khama.

The response to the recent Court of Appeal decision to allow Bushmen living in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR; February 2011, The political scene) to access water highlights the personality differences that will have to be overcome within the opposition. The BNF in particular was jubilant over the decision, given that its president, Duma Boko, had represented the Bushmen in the earlier High Court case that, in 2007, overturned the government's policy of relocating residents from the reserve (February 2007, The political scene). However, the BMD was quiet on the decision, as some of its members had, during their time in the BDP, actively supported the relocation policy-most notably Mr Pilane, who represented the government in the same case.