SECTOR 1 The Constitution provides for Members of Parliament to ‘present bills on their own without having to wait for the Executive.’ Despite the fate of the draft access to information bill, there were previous instances when two Private Members’ bills were passed by Parliament. The two bills were: the Domestic Violence Bill – which is now unpopular with certain gender advocates – and a bill to reduce the age of majority from 21 to 18. Recently, there was a bill before Parliament seeking to change the age of sexual consent from 16 to 18. Government drafted a bill and civil society ‘came up with a model law’ amending the bill that was put before parliament, which ‘succeeded because we got a Member of Parliament to provide notice of the amendment.’ These positive examples, it was argued, were only successful because parliamentary support for Private Members’ Bills or proposed amendments came from the ruling BDP; and not from opposition parties. Scores: Individual scores: 22 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator ✓ ✓✓ ✓✓✓✓ ✓✓ ✓ Average score: 1.4 (2005 = n/a; 2007 = n/a; 2009 = 1.2; 2011 = 2.0; 2014 = 1.4) Overall score for sector 1: 2.5 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BOTSWANA 2018 ✓