Editing Politics of Botswana (section)

=== 1998–present ===
Masire stepped down as president in 1998 and Vice President Mogae became president.{{Sfn|Leith|2005|p=33}} He chose [[Ian Khama]] as vice president and while the two were nominally non-factional, they effectively supported the A-Team faction of Merafhe and Nkate. This caused the factional differences in the party to further escalate.<ref name=":16" /> A schism also formed in the oppositional BNF, which led to the creation of the [[Botswana Congress Party]] in 1998.{{Sfn|Hillbom|Bolt|2018|p=149}} Enough assemblymen defected that this new party became the primary opposition, but they were replaced by BNF candidates in the [[1999 Botswana general election|1999 general election]].{{Sfn|Leith|2005|p=34}}

Mogae's tenure as president ended in 2008 and Ian Khama, the son of President Seretse Khama, became president.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 October 2008 |title=Botswana's Mogae wins $5m award |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2008/10/21/botswanas-mogae-wins-5m-award |access-date=2023-09-30 |publisher=Al Jazeera}}</ref> The BDP underwent its first split in 2010 when Khama encouraged the Barata-Phathi faction to leave the party and they formed the [[Botswana Movement for Democracy]], led by [[Gomolemo Motswaledi]].<ref name=":16" /> [[Freedom House]] lowered Botswana's rating in the 2010s as a crackdown took place against journalists.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal |last1=Seabo |first1=Batlang |last2=Nyenhuis |first2=Robert |date=2021 |title=Botswana's 2019 General Elections: A Referendum on General Ian Khama |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000202062100069X/type/journal_article |journal=African Studies Review|volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=854–883 |doi=10.1017/asr.2021.69 |s2cid=244539238 |issn=0002-0206}}</ref>

Khama stepped down in 2018 and Vice President [[Mokgweetsi Masisi]] became president. He immediately reversed Khama's policies and replaced top officials who had been appointed by Khama. The two former allies quickly became political rivals and Khama defected from the Botswana Democratic Party. He instead aligned with the newly formed [[Botswana Patriotic Front]] in addition to supporting the Umbrella for Democratic Change. This made the [[2019 Botswana general election|2019 general election]] the first competitive election in the nation's history, but the BDP remained in power with 52.7% of the total vote, winning 38 of the 57 seats in the assembly.<ref name=":17" /> The rivalry significantly escalated when Masisi's pursued criminal charges against Khama for illegal ownership of firearms in 2022, causing Khama to seek asylum in South Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ndebele |first=Lenin |title=Ex-Botswana president Ian Khama vows to make successor 'one-term' president |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/ex-botswana-president-ian-khama-vows-to-make-successor-one-term-president-20230412 |access-date=2023-09-30 |website=News24}}</ref>