Evolution of political campaigns
Ryder Gabathuse | Thursday October 23, 2014 16:59
The three parties have elevated their political game with new innovations intended to win the hearts and minds of the people.
This is over and above the traditional methods of campaigns such as door-to-door, public rallies and others.
The political parties are proving to all and sundry that the campaign methods are not static but dynamic and are changing with the times.
The three parties have set a trend that they will not leave any stone unturned as they know they are dealing with informed, educated and sophisticated voters, especially in the urban areas and major villages.
Nonetheless, rural folks are not going to be left behind.
In its endeavour to reach out to the informed and educated voter, the BDP recently led a massive campaign across media houses in which they carried a letter by President Ian Khama asking the public: Have you received my letter?
For starters, this does not come cheap.
The BDP’s message is crafted in a manner that no reader can miss whether interested in the BDP business or not. The advertorial, carrying the portrait of the President and chief campaigner, Khama, details the party’s tenure for the next five years.
It chronicles the troubles that the country encountered in the last five years and lists what it will do in the next five years once given the mandate.
Above all, Khama presents a list of urgent promises that will be tackled immediately such as unemployment.
“I am impatient that we have not been able to do more for our citizens who cannot find work, especially our talented youth, and I am pained when I meet Batswana who are unable to provide for their families.
We must do more,” reads part of the Khama message captured in the party letter addressed to fellow Batswana.
The message is captured in simple language to hook the reader to read on and on. The letter describes the hardships encountered in the last five years including global economic crisis that hit the entire world.
Most importantly, it bears the signature of Khama. The intention is very clear that the BDP wants to capture the imagination of voters and leave them feeling very important.
Khama is spot on that the election is crucial for Botswana in order to continue the economic recovery and fulfil the promises made to take Batswana out of poverty, increase education funding, eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and fight corruption in all its facets.
The BDP has also been sponsoring advertorials of achievements of its government through various programmes targeting both the young and elderly.
The same Khama letter was slipped under the doors of the homes of Batswana or was delivered elsewhere in Gaborone and its environs.
As for the BCP and UDC, they have stepped up their campaigns through the new innovations.
The latest adopted by the two in their campaigns include the use of branded campaign buses that have been touring constituencies.
The campaign buses are branded with the party colours and bear the faces of the presidential candidates and their running mates in visible print. Sloganeering is also top of the agenda.
The BCP and UDC taglines of “Ready to Lead” and “Embrace Change” respectively have been given sufficient exposure and are known to almost every Motswana.
These new innovations have ensured that the parties’ slogans imprint upon people’s minds.
The presidential candidates, taglines and party colours on the buses tell the story of a truly open political fight.
The two opposition parties have literally been able to take the fight to the BDP, as their buses have been able to carry large campaign teams across the contested constituencies.
In places that the opposition campaign teams have covered, they have left people enlightened and this new innovation has been exciting as it is the first time the parties have tried it.
In the era of technology where just anyone can take their own pictures through the use of mobile phones, social sites are littered with both the BCP and UDC buses on their campaign trails.
This on its own has been able to help the course of the opposition, as even those who had missed the buses in their constituencies were able to access the social sites and get the updates on their parties.
Perhaps, sensing that Khama, who has been piloting army choppers to BDP rallies as stealing their thunder, BCP and UDC presidential candidates, Dumelang Saleshando and Duma Boko, have resorted to chartering choppers.
Boko mesmerised UDC supporters in Molepolole last Saturday when he unexpectedly appeared in a chopper that media reports indicate hovered several times over the freedom square before it landed at Borakalalo Primary School sending party youths into a frenzy.
Equally the BCP has adopted the same mode of transport in a last minute bid to woo the crowd to their side.
It also speaks well about the financial muscle of the opposition in this year’s general elections as the innovations also come at a huge cost.
The BDP has also been using BDF planes to transport the campaign teams across the length and breath of the country.
BDP national campaign manager, Alec Seametso, says the BDP has come up with new ways of reaching out to the voters in recognition of the changing needs of the people.
“We want to ensure that Batswana understand what the BDP stands for and to take our issues to the people,” he says.
Seametso says the party has come up with new campaign innovations so that they are able to articulate its promises to the people and ensure that it fulfils them.
UDC spokesperson, Moeti Mohwasa, says they came up with new ways of campaigning so that they could access areas that they had previously failed to penetrate.
Equally, they wanted to improve the visibility of the UDC.
“I can tell you openly that people are thirsty for change and we continue to get positive reception across the constituencies as the BDP over the years has become complacent and taken people for granted,” says Mohwasa.
Taolo Lucas of the BCP strongly feels that using a big branded bus has helped their followers to identify with the party brand.
“We are happy that the BCP are trailblazers in the use of branded bus campaigns. Others now are following us in this innovation,” he says.
University of Botswana (UB) political commentator, Professor Emmanuel Botlhale, acknowledges that political campaigns have been evolving with time.
“What happened some 10 years has been changed as campaign methods were never meant to be static and will continue to change with time,” Botlhale analyses.
The UB academic describes the new approach to 2014 general elections as inevitable means of reaching out to the voters.
Through the Khama letters, Botlhale feels that the BDP is trying to connect with the people.
“A letter is so personal and connects to people within the party. It gets into my personal space and it is so direct. It can make someone feel appreciated,” he says.
He feels strongly that the method adopted by the BDP provides added advantage to the party and it is not about the President per se.
He also gives credit to the opposition, as they are not left behind in their endeavours to reach out to the voter.
He acknowledges that opposition using branded buses and having access to both print and electronic media, including the use of the social media, will definitely have an appeal to the voter.
“I think what we have to appreciate is that this is a high stage election, which is diametrically different from any other,” he says.
Botlhale observes that in this year’s general elections he cannot predict anything easily as nothing is in the bag yet.
“The opposition has joined the bandwagon in branding itself and they are definitely reacting to the situation of need,” he says, adding that they are bound to fight with anything at their disposal than in any other elections before.
He is convinced that the opposition, BCP and UDC, are fighting to get a share of the political market.
He says: “The political game today is totally different from any other experienced before. They (opposition) may not match the BDP pound for pound in terms of their evolving campaigns, but they are doing anything they can do.”
He describes political parties as rationale organisations that do not exist in isolation.
“What is happening to the opposition parties now is that they are receiving a stimuli from the environment and they are reacting to the needs of their voters,” he says.