Election manifesto model outdated – analysts
Political analysts believe that people no longer go to the trouble of reading political parties' manifestos.
Political parties and commentators are questioning the relevance of political party manifestos ahead of next month's parliamentary and presidential elections.
Barely a month before the elections, there is very little political activity.
The official opposition Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) and All People's Party (APP) are the only formations to have launched their manifestos yet.
The ruling party Swapo is scheduled to launch its manifesto this weekend according to its mobilisation and information secretary, Hilma Nicanor.
Political commentator Ndumba Kamwanyah believes manifestos are useless in the current political set-up. He also thinks it is time for political parties to find a different way to speak to voters instead of relying on manifestos.
According to Kamwanyah, people no longer spend time on reading manifestos to see whether a political party has changed its stance.
“I am sure there are many people who did not read the PDM manifesto, which is 45 pages long. It does not make sense and we know that parties have presented us with manifestos that do not speak to the real issues on the ground,” he says.
Political analyst Graham Hopwood agrees that detailed manifestos are not appealing to voters and feels that political parties should find other means to spread their message. He says it remains important for political parties to state their basic priorities, though.
“I think parties still need to have programmes based on policies which can only be expressed in manifestos, but I think the parties are failing to communicate their key points via social media or make them key messages in their speeches,” he said.
Constitutional expert Dr Nico Horn says the idea of a manifesto came from an era when people were ideologically divided.
“I think manifestos can help, especially when you want to emphasise why you want people to vote for you. But I think it is very unlike the manifestos you get in the rest of the world. It is not ideological; it deals with the past, [the party's] historical contribution or non-contribution to the liberation struggle. It deals with your centre of support, those kinds of things. Those are not very nice things to put in a manifesto,” he says.
He adds that there are no real ideological differences between political parties in Namibia with the exception of Swanu, which is a socialist party.
“If you look at the leaders when they speak, they sort of say the same thing. It is much more a historical thing – for PDM people still associate them with the DTA whereas Swapo may have a lot of flaws in the party and still primarily go on the liberation ticket,” he says.
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JEMIMA BEUKES
Barely a month before the elections, there is very little political activity.
The official opposition Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) and All People's Party (APP) are the only formations to have launched their manifestos yet.
The ruling party Swapo is scheduled to launch its manifesto this weekend according to its mobilisation and information secretary, Hilma Nicanor.
Political commentator Ndumba Kamwanyah believes manifestos are useless in the current political set-up. He also thinks it is time for political parties to find a different way to speak to voters instead of relying on manifestos.
According to Kamwanyah, people no longer spend time on reading manifestos to see whether a political party has changed its stance.
“I am sure there are many people who did not read the PDM manifesto, which is 45 pages long. It does not make sense and we know that parties have presented us with manifestos that do not speak to the real issues on the ground,” he says.
Political analyst Graham Hopwood agrees that detailed manifestos are not appealing to voters and feels that political parties should find other means to spread their message. He says it remains important for political parties to state their basic priorities, though.
“I think parties still need to have programmes based on policies which can only be expressed in manifestos, but I think the parties are failing to communicate their key points via social media or make them key messages in their speeches,” he said.
Constitutional expert Dr Nico Horn says the idea of a manifesto came from an era when people were ideologically divided.
“I think manifestos can help, especially when you want to emphasise why you want people to vote for you. But I think it is very unlike the manifestos you get in the rest of the world. It is not ideological; it deals with the past, [the party's] historical contribution or non-contribution to the liberation struggle. It deals with your centre of support, those kinds of things. Those are not very nice things to put in a manifesto,” he says.
He adds that there are no real ideological differences between political parties in Namibia with the exception of Swanu, which is a socialist party.
“If you look at the leaders when they speak, they sort of say the same thing. It is much more a historical thing – for PDM people still associate them with the DTA whereas Swapo may have a lot of flaws in the party and still primarily go on the liberation ticket,” he says.
[email protected]
JEMIMA BEUKES
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