THE LIFE OF A POLITICIAN

Any political movement keen on maintaining voter influence must master the art of countering disinformation and fake news. As one wise man once said “a lie travels around the globe while the truth is still putting on its shoes. To achieve superiority, three fundamental functions must be established in a political campaign . First, there must be a structured information management system. Second, a willingness to stare at the truth, evidence and numbers without flinching. And third, leaders must embrace proposals for improvement and provide resources. However, in a political culture where the end justifies the means and key campaign functions are allocated to goons and ethnic chiefs, the space for a fully-fledged, professionally-run campaign is limited. What tends to happen is that after elections, political parties cease to exist. Then, two years to the next elections, they re-emerge, delegate meetings are sponsored and candidates declared as the party flag bearers.

Hardly will these parties have the time to conduct baseline surveys of core issues that voters are grappling with. Instead, a mixture of canvassing in the party nominations and line-ups for key positions tends to dominate most of the late-night strategy meetings. # VOTEWISELY 2018