A Political Consultant manages the process that leads to the election of a candidate.
His key functions include:
Research: What does the public know about the candidate’s personality and performance? What is their perception of what they know? What is their attitude to what they know and does this attitude dispose them to support the candidate or not? Without this reality check, the consultant cannot develop a strategy for the campaign.
Strategy: how can the resources of the candidate- performance, personality, research results, party affiliation, cultural context, the political history of the constituency- and the laws, political forces involved be utilized to make the candidate win? A strategy must drive the campaign from A to Z.
Messaging: Based on the strategy, how do we craft messages which resonate and excite voters to support the candidate? How do we anticipate and neutralize the messages of the Opposition?
Effective messaging will largely determine the direction of the campaign.
Media: How do we deliver the message to the voters in a way that will make them vote for the candidate? What medium do the voters patronize, radio, television, word of mouth, social media, rallies, broadcasts?
Getting Out the Vote/Mobilisation: How do we make sure that people leave their homes to cast their vote on Election Day? How do we remove the obstacles – violence, long stay at the polling booth, uncooperative security and polling officials, opposition rigging? How do we ensure that the votes cast are faithfully reported? How do we ensure that our polling agents are not compromised?
Kehinde Bamigbetan is an ace journalist, political consultant and immediate past Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy
visit www.korkiandassociates.com for more information
