WINNING ELECTIONS: SUMMARY OF THE 12TH ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

ALN 12^th Annual General Assembly
Johannesburg, South Africa
30 January 2016
Summary on Winning Elections: Strategies, Policies, and Solutions for Success
The ALN member parties, gathered on this day 30 January 2016, committing themselves to following best practices in Winning Elections: Strategies, Policies, and Solutions for Success.
This document highlights the culmination of expert and delegate involvement in the main subthemes of winning elections. It is a broad framework in which the ALN member parties agree on the key indicators, requirements, and principles for effective electoral performance.

1. Strategic Campaign Management

The key elements of an Election Campaign are:

• Clear Objectives
• Vote Targets
• Campaign Team
• Market Research
• Core Offer and Message
• Campaign Design
• Money (Fundraising)
• Execution, Monitoring and Evaluation (Via “War Room”) Clear Objectives
• Vote Targets
• Campaign Team
• Market Research
• Core Offer and Message
• Campaign Design
• Money (Fundraising)
• Execution, Monitoring and Evaluation (Via “War Room”)

 
In order to prepare a clear campaign message, one has to be very clear on your strategic objectives and have a very good understanding of your target market.
Market research is key in this respect, both qualitative and quantitative. Your market research process should start with a series of representative focus groups to refine the questions and directions of a broader quantitative survey. The full process will generate a defined market that you should be targeting and what the critical needs of that target market are.
On the basis of that initial research, you should develop a core election message or value proposition that meets the following requirements:

1. Philosophically aligned: Consistent with the core beliefs of the party or candidate;
2. An actual promise: Something concrete a political party will do;
3. Credible: The market must believe we will keep our promises and can do what we offer;
4. Differentiated: The message must be something different from what other parties offer;
5. Aligned with the critical needs of the market: The message must be something voters really want – and intersect with their values.

Once the election promise is decided upon, it is ideal to test it and various executions using market research to hone it even further and identify the vehicles and platforms to best deliver it in volume over the duration of the campaign. e a clear campaign message, one has to be very clear on your strategic objectives and have a very good understanding of your target market.
 

2. Youth Mobilisation

Youth seek to make a social impact through any political activity. A contribution to the community as at the centre of youth involvement in politics and the implementation of liberal ideology.
Social media is a critical tool in the interaction with and mobilisation of the youth. Connection with the youth via social media requires critical engagement as opposed to advertising. It is noted that this engagement requires appealing to the values of the target market and providing messaging with which the market resonates.
Key roles should be assigned to youth in political activities and campaigning. This involves the utilisation of a full database of activists and volunteers, in which each individual fulfils a role specific and unique to their capabilities.
The number one barrier or challenge or young people to get involve in political parties is the cost. Often events with elected officials or leaders are restricted to donors, often pricing out young people. Too often political parties rely on young people as volunteers, with little in return. The number one barrier or challenge or young people to get involve in political parties is the cost.
Often events with elected officials or leaders are restricted to donors, often pricing out young people.
Free open access to elected official and party events is the first step in breaking down the barriers of long term engagement of young people in a political party.
 

3. Party Manifestos – Best Practice in Communicating Policies

A manifesto is a summary of a party’s policy platform. It encapsulates the party’s principles and priorities, and sets out those policies and plans that the party would implement in government. Manifestos are important because they show voters what a party thinks & cares about most:

• Principles = what we believe in
• Priorities = what we care about
• Positions = where we stand on key issues
• Plans = what we will do in government

A manifesto is usually clustered into different policy areas or themes. The policy priorities are crystallised into an offer – based on a series of pledges – which usually forms the basis of the campaign slogan.
You need a communications strategy to convey the offer “on message, in volume, over time” through various media.
Party manifestos should be communicated through the following channels:
Earned (Free) Media:

• Reports on campaign events/ speeches etc.

Paid Media (Direct Marketing):

• Posters
• Pamphlets
• Billboards
• TV Adverts
• Radio Adverts

Online/Social Media:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• You Tube
• Mobi
• Website
  • Online Engagement Forums

Focus groups are a good way to test your messages with voters. They can help to give you valuable insight into which messages and methods of delivery are likely to be effective.
Polling – a sampling or collection of opinions on a subject, taken from either a selected or a random group of persons for the purpose of analysis – is another useful tool.
 

4. Voter Outreach –Success in Volunteerism, Activism and Canvassing

A ground game program includes how a party engages directly with voters through personal conversations in the community and online/on mobile. A ground game generally has these elements:

• Direct Voter Contact: An infrastructure that has conversations about the party, issues, candidates, and election directly with voters whether in person, on the phone, or online.
• Organizing: An approach to engage strong supporters and bring them into action doing direct voter contact and further engaging other supporters.
• Data Tracking: A system to track which both supporters and voters. This system captures information from all actions taken by supporters and all interactions with voters.

 
It is important to provide training for those having ground game conversations with voters so they can have maximally effective conversations.  The most effective conversations are when supporters connect with voters on shared values.  The supporter connects the values they share with the voters to the values of the party.
An effective rubric for supporter conversations with voters is:
a. Acknowledge & Relate: Ask the voter what is concerning them in their community. Listen, and acknowledge your concerns.  You might share a similar concern you have, or a personal experience that illustrates how you’ve experienced similar concerns.
b. Connect on Values: The supporter should share what values of the party cause her to support the party’s position.  The supporter should highlight values that she expects the voter to share.  This should relate to one of the core messages
c. Give Policy Examples: The supporter should then choose an example of how the party’s policies and actions manifest its values.  This can be a policy accomplishment or a policy plan for the future.
d. Draw Contrast: Finally, the supporter should define the choice the voter has to make between two parties or two different actions by drawing contrast with the alternative.  This can be the alternative party or what will happen if no action is taken.
The party’s main message should be a reflection of the party’s values and policy priorities.  Polling can help determine how to best talk about an issue with voters, and help understand how to connect the party’s values with the voters’ priorities.  However, it should not be used for trying to determine how the party stands on issues.  The party’s values are drawn from the shared beliefs of its members on what policy approach is best for the country.
When translating the party’s values and policy priorities into message for the ground game it is important to:

• Relate policy priorities back to values that resonate with voters.
• Choose easy-to-remember language that is concise but evocative
• Focus on one key message that is reiterated repeatedly, and which can hold the top policy priorities of the party

Once your message is chosen, it is important to consistently echo the message in multiple media, whether candidate speeches, press events with party leaders, online content, flyers/ mail, or conversations with voters at the doors and on the phones.
Personal conversations with voters is the most effective way to move a voter to support and to action – but it can also be one of the most challenging.  However, while ads or press attention and even flyers or mail can help to inform the voter, nothing is more effective at ensuring they will support and will vote than a personal conversation.  Building an infrastructure with enough staff to have enough conversations with voters to win, is incredibly expensive. This is why it is so important to engage and build a volunteer organization.
Building a volunteer organization takes investment in staff to identify, train, and develop party volunteers who can take on increasing responsibility in their local communities.  Elements of a powerful volunteer organization include:

1. Developing volunteers to become leaders of other volunteers
2. Consistent communication about strategy and tactics to create consistency in program
3. Diligent tracking of data related to volunteer actions (as well as voter interactions)
4. Emphasis on building personal relationships between staff organizers and volunteer supporters, as well as among volunteers working together