Of billboards, buses and debates :: Mmegi Online

Politics is a numbers’ game. The party that wins an election is the one that manages to energise its base to go out and vote in numbers. According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) 823,306 people registered for this year’s elections. Over the last few months the contending parties have been going through the voters’ rolls with a fine tooth comb as they unleashed their teams to cajole individual voters through house-to-house visits and snail mail.

Getting people to go out and vote for a party depends on the strength of that party’s ground game. This includes the party’s ability to ensure that its members and sympathisers register to vote, sustaining their interest throughout the campaign period and ensuring that they physically go to the polling stations on polling day. This requires organisation and resources.

The BDP knows how to win elections. Their election machine started rolling even as they were preparing for the primaries last year. They made a statement early in the year by putting up billboards in all the 57 constituencies prominently displayed at strategic points. In a show of force that must have sent a chilling effect down the spine of the opposition the BDP dispatched about 60 new vehicles for the campaign. The party was sending a strong message about their intention and determination to stay in power.

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