DESPITE most political party presidential candidates having successfully filed in their nomination papers and having embarked on what can be called aggressive political campaigns for the January 20, 2015 presidential by-elections, one sees that most presidential candidates and their political campaign agents are not as effective in appealing to voters’ hearts as they are supposed to do.
The biggest challenge most presidential candidates have in their political campaigns for the forth-coming presidential election is that most of them are just cataloguing problems Zambians are perceived to be experiencing; and promising that such a presidential candidate will address such problems.
Many presidential candidates have talked about creating jobs, reducing mealie-meal and fuel prices, offering free education from primary to tertiary education levels, improving on agriculture and health sectors, etc where some presidential candidates are promising to increase the number of farmers benefiting from farm input support programme (FISP) and increasing the number of health workers and essential drugs in our health institutions, etc.
But what most presidential candidates have not clearly brought out is how such reductions of challenges Zambians are facing will be achieved or how such improvements in agriculture, education and health sectors will be achieved.
On job creation; especially on the Copperbelt region, most presidential candidates have not clearly spelt out what they will do to facilitate high local and foreign investments which will lead to high industrialization that will create more jobs for citizens.
Look at how late President Michael Sata used to campaign on radio stations and in political rallies. Late President Sata made every citizens nod his or her head in agreement with what he (late Sata) was saying because what he said was true; and many voters agreed with him on appropriate strategies to address those challenges!
Making political campaign promises just to lure electorate to vote for you; and your political party can be a haunting and embarrassing experience when you are in State House and a ruling party if such promises are challenging to fulfill.
Effective political campaign communication is saying what voters know; and showing them how such challenges can be addressed.
What are you going to do to employ more civil servants without increasing budgetary deficit or dependence on external assistance to fund civil service salary bill? How will you generate more revenue to finance free education many pupils and students from primary to university level; and improve on health staff and essential drugs and health facilities throughout the country?
Merely listing Zambia’s socio-economic challenges; and promising to remove or reduce such challenges is political rhetoric. Enlightened citizens will know that such a presidential candidate just wants to be a republican president; and enjoy the more than 101 powers and privileges a state president enjoys without really improving on the living standards of many Zambians as it has been in the past decades.
Political campaigns should be appealing the feelings of electorate. To achieve this, political candidates should have enough facts and figures about issues that negatively affect citizens. Those aspiring for political positions should be equipped with practical strategies for fighting against such socio-economic challenges in the country.
Just saying: ‘I will reduce the price of mealie meal and that of fuel’; without demonstrating how you will achieve such proves limited capacity in a presidential candidate and his team to handle tasking national issues.
Not including how you will improve the lives of the people through provision of various socio-economic services also proves that a political candidate is just a selfish and greedy person who wants to use politics for his or her personal motives and greed.
Currently, reading or listening to most presidential political campaigns, one wonders on what basis can voters elect such a presidential aspirant a republican president because most of the political campaigns are not appealing to electorate on policies and programmes which will facilitate achievement of the political promises most presidential aspirant is making.
From PR point of view, what is also of concern is how some presidential candidates post themselves in front of political rallies. Appearance and posture are critical for presidential candidates. Most presidential candidates don’t seem to attract public confidence from their appearance and postures in public places or in political rallies.
The office of the presidency is the highest office of the land; and carries with it many minor and huge responsibilities. Therefore, appearance of a presidential candidate in the eyes of the public is also deciding factor on whether voters should vote for such a candidate or not.
This doesn’t imply that a presidential candidate should look too smart and business-like at all times while wearing a serious face. A presidential candidate should try to suit the environment he or she is in; but shouldn’t appear like one of the ‘Kaponyazi’ of that area. A presidential candidate should look presentable and responsible enough to attract confidence and trust from the voters.
Fluency in speaking and articulation of national and minority issues are critical factors in qualities of a political candidate.
A presidential candidate should also demonstrate high levels of humour where need arises. This proves that such a president is a normal human being who socializes with others. A presidential aspirant who demonstrates that he or she socialises with others also proves that he or she is or would be approachable not only to his or her relatives and close associates; but also to many citizens when he or she is in State House.
To avoid giving such above stated negative impressions, each presidential aspirant is supposed to have an effective media or Public Relations’ (PR) strategist to formulate political speeches and gloom a respective presidential candidates on how he or she should appear and present such messages in front of or to the masses.
Presidential aspirants for the January 20, 2015 presidential election and their political campaign managers shouldn’t forget that electorate are now politically more enlightened on how political candidates deceive and manipulate them for personal or minority group’s motives.
The other factor that affects effective political campaign communication is who campaigns for you?
The caliber of people who are in the political campaign team; and the type of political party members or cadres who campaign for a political candidate speaks volumes about the political candidate and a political party concerned.
While every citizen is free to choose and campaign for a political leader of his or her choice, political candidates and their respective political parties should ensure that those who campaign for them are members of society who are put in high esteem in that society. Political agents should be of good character with presentable appearance. Scruffy political cadres paint a negative picture on both the aspiring political candidate and his or her political party.
And as competitive as the January 20, 2015 presidential by-elections seem to be, it is critical that each presidential candidate, political party and political campaign management team ensures that political campaign communication is well articulated; and therefore, appealing to the five senses of electorate.
Such an approach to political campaign communication will help one presidential aspirant to beat the rest of presidential candidates; and win in the presidential by-election with a landslide victory.
The author is a PR Trainer and Consultant.
For comments and ideas, contact:
Cell: 0967/0977 450151E-mail:sycoraxtndhlovu@yahoo.co.uk
