This study analyzed the 1999 Botswana political manifestos that were used by the
Botswana Democratic Party, the Botswana National Front and the Botswana Congress
Party. The purpose of the study was to analyze how political parties differentiated
themselves through the use of symbols, the narration of their policies, and their general
narrative. The results from qualitative content analysis study indicate that political
parties used different symbols in their manifestos. The concentrations of symbols for the
three parties were in the cover page, and for the BDP and BCP inside of the manifestos.
While the BDP and BCP had some graphics inside the manifesto, the BNF had all its
graphics on its cover page. The BDP was the only party that used symbols in the entire
manifestos, at the beginning of every section. According to the three parties, the political
history of Botswana began in 1965. The BDP states that the country has gone through
tremendous development, whereas the opposition parties state that the country has not
developed, as it should have. The BDP sees the future of the country as a bright one if it
continues to rule, whereas the opposition parties see the opposite. The BDP acclaims the
success of Botswana and attacks the opposition parties in generalized terms, whereas the
opposition parties attacks the BDP without attacking each other. The opposition parties
also viewed the system as less democratic and both wanted to give the Independent
Electoral Commission more powers. Future research should investigate the differences of
using manifestos in parliamentary systems versus political advertising, which is mostly
used in federal systems.