Botswana National Front

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Botswana National Front
Leader	Duma Boko
Founded	10 October 1965
Ideology	Social democracy Christian left Historical: Democratic socialism
Political position	Centre-left Historical: Left-wing
National affiliation	Umbrella for Democratic Change
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International
National Assembly	1 / 65
Party flag
Politics of Botswana Political parties Elections

The Botswana National Front (BNF) is a social democratic political party in Botswana. It has been the main opposition party in Botswana since the 1969 elections.

The party achieved its greatest electoral success in the 1994 elections, when it won 37.1% of the vote and 13 of 40 parliamentary seats. A factional conflict in 1998 led to the departure of 11 of these MPs, who then founded the Botswana Congress Party (BCP). In the 1999 elections, the BNF's vote share declined to 26% and it won 6 parliamentary seats. In the 2004 general election the party won 26.1% of the popular vote and 12 out of 57 seats. Its representation was sharply reduced in the 2009 elections, with the party reduced to only six seats in the National Assembly of Botswana. The BNF's parliamentary representation fell to 5 seats following the defection of the party's former Vice President, Olebile Gaborone, to the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in July 2010.^{[citation needed]}