Lessons drawn from Uganda’s elections

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OPINION

By Elly Twineyo Kamugisha

Welcome back from the recent presidential and parliamentary elections. Congratulations to Uganda and all the winners for undertaking this regular democratic process. To those who lost, there is always another time after five years. Uganda has fully embraced democratic processes of regular elections, and therefore, there is another election coming. You also have institutions where to go for redress in case you think you were aggrieved by the process. Please remember that democracy and regular elections are a process, not an act.

It has been an intense period of activities and campaigns everywhere. Different political parties, shades and colours, and messages. It was indeed an opportunity for the people of Uganda to hear, listen and discuss the agenda of different parties and presidential candidates and MPs, highlighting how they intend to take Uganda forward in terms of the economy, social issues and politics.

It has been a period where some segments of society have made some sales, and ultimately money, in election materials, voter materials, art and creatives, and media costs.

To most politicians, it was a period where, without careful preparation, a lot of emotions filled the air. Politics, like soccer, tends a lot to be emotional. I have sometimes seen some buddies refuse to have a meal after their sports team has been defeated. Some have even exchanged blows.

Like soccer, it is not emotions that win. It is planning and organisation, and support from stakeholders that make a team win. Winning an election requires that you be prepared.

Let us look at the lessons from recent elections as follows:

• Once elected, you have to perform and not take people for granted. Have you been near your people during the past five years since they elected you? People have refused to re-elect those who promised and never delivered.
  
  
• Planning and analysing before the implementation of your campaign strategy. You have to prepare for the campaign. You have to sit down with a team and plan how to execute the campaign strategy. You need resources (enough people, funds, campaign materials, equipment and time) and activities that are executable based on SMART [specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound] objectives.
  
  
• Campaign strategy. Do you have the strategy, first and foremost? You need a good strategy to execute an efficient and effective campaign strategy. You cannot wish for a good strategy and hope to win by just moving around, making political noise. This includes how you will deploy your campaign team. Who will go where? To do what? To tell people what? Time management is important. How have you budgeted your campaign time over the entire period of campaigning?
  
  
• The message and the messenger matter. What is your core message? What are you promising the people? What is your manifesto saying? The people did not prepare the manifesto with you, and they may not have time (or the ability to read it) understand it. Therefore, tell them what is in your manifesto. Give them your agenda for the next five years.
  
  I have seen a tendency for parties to discuss other parties’ messages rather than their own. They discuss individuals rather than their party manifestos. This can sometimes be dangerous. People might perceive you as having no agenda but discussing an individual. Please present and explain your agenda and convince people to vote for you. Explain that your agenda is better than others.
  
  Comparison is fine in competition, but in business, you have to avoid directly mudslinging your competitors. You have to present your strengths, not your weaknesses. You have to tell how your products solve people’s problems, including basic needs in a society.
  
  
• Individual leaders matter during the campaign. We have seen now in different countries (developed, advanced and those trying to advance) that leaders as individuals matter. The people seem to have studied several individual hopefuls during the campaigns and made a decision on those they believe will deliver; those who seem to be trusted and believed, whether they are first-timers or returning politicians.
  
  You see, people should not be perceived (neither based) on their level of education, region, community, religion, age and related variables. not to know what they want in terms of development. As we shall see, there are common issues that are important to all the people in all parts of the country. They need leaders to show them the right direction on these issues.
  
  
• Promotion of any commodity or service for acceptance requires marketing your name (the brand) with promotion. I have seen that this is also true in politics and the campaign period. You have to present yourself and your message (especially your tagline) to attract positive perceptions from those you are campaigning to. Simply put, perception is “the way we see the world around us”. This is important. If you cannot appeal to the way we see what is happening to us and propose solutions, then you have failed to convince us to vote for you or your manifesto.
  
  In the business world, enterprises are always engaged in promoting their products as brands. With promotion, the business is doing either or all of the following together. We will look at it as DRIP (D-differentiate itself and its brands from others, R-remind/reassure its stakeholders where they have been together and where they are now, I-inform all stakeholders about the company and its products and sometimes P-persuade the stakeholders to prefer our company and its brands). I have seen that in politics, DRIP is more penultimate and ultimate, more especially during the campaign period.
  
  
• Cohesion and leadership of the campaign team. There are always going to be a few people on the team who will fault, but overall team cohesion is what will win the race. Before, during and after the elections, teams that are working together — focused on the core campaign agenda — are pertinent to achieving a better result. Some parties and MPs had a challenge organising, co-ordinating and maintaining team cohesion.
  
  During the 2021 and 2026 elections, we have seen that without a team that is organised around the core objectives, performance at the voting time becomes meagre. Kampala is a good example to explain this in the 2021 and 2026 elections. It is not usually about money but is more about organisation.
  
  
• Have a team of professionals covertly and overtly studying the process and progress of the campaign to ensure timely and relevant co-ordination. Most parties that do not have professionals in different areas — including economics, health, environment, data, research and analysis (including pinion poll analysis), political analysis, security and defence, foreign affairs and relations; legal analysis and political marketing — face challenges explaining their agenda to the people.
  
  
• History matters. History always has influence on the present. It is pertinent that we appreciate where we came from. We didn’t just emerge. There is a history of our society, whether good or bad. Parties need to explain how they relate to the present situation and the future.
  
  As always, history happened in the past where the present generation was not. How do you explain it to build a good future? This is important. You cannot say that history doesn’t concern the current generation. You cannot focus on campaigning on other issues and belittle history. I hear it always in the US campaigns where candidates remind the people of US history.
  
  
• There are common issues that affect the majority of people. You need to identify them and explain to the people how you will address them. In Uganda, in my view, there are two issues that matter to all of us: security and prosperity. You can never run away from these issues and not talk about them in a campaign. Our future will be linked to these issues. Parties and those campaigning for the highest office in the land need to study them, understand them and explain them to the people. Whoever articulates them well takes the day.
  
  
• National security is one of the common issues for the people. Travelling in different parts of Uganda and asking different individuals (different levels of education, region, community, religion, age, and related variables), it was clear that the people feel strongly that national defence, security and peace were important in this campaign. You had to explain it honestly to the people. Whether you are aware or not, people voted for peace and stability during this campaign.
  
  
• Working towards prosperity is another issue that concerns all the people. Uganda needs leaders and government workers (civil servants and public servants) in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) who appreciate our plight for prosperity, producing for the market and becoming an advanced country under the Vision 2040 initiative; currently guided by the Ten-fold Economic Growth Strategy.
  
  I think it is time Uganda requires workers in MDAs who understand the direction of the country and geopolitics support a positive agenda.  Prosperity will thrive in a peaceful and politically stable environment in a country and geographical region (East African Community/Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa).
  
  Countries that are developing need leaders who can guarantee peace and security because without security, peace and stability, people in households and firms will not commit their time and funds to long-term work commitments, businesses, savings and investments. History and recent experiences have shown that the longer the period of peace and political stability in a country, the better for families, communities, businesses, other organisations and development partners.
  
  

It is now time to let the winners, as our torch-bearers, show us direction towards prosperity. We wish our leaders well and need them to focus and ensure security and political stability, which is good for savings and investment, exports, tourism and remittances. Let our Uganda brand keep shining. As I have said before in these articles, our brand is likeable. Our country is listed in different travel magazines, international media stations and other media as one of the world’s best travel destinations. We need more of this image, and its promotion should continue. Our country is unique in several aspects, including history, culture, location, flora and fauna.

We again note that the Government, with its limited financial resources, will not implement everything in one go. This should be appreciated. We give the Government until 2040 to deliver greatly.

We need our leaders to reduce the noise in our country because money hates noise. The noise in our country should be minimised because it is usually unnecessary and disturbs attention, focus and business decisions.

I wish you good five years of security, peace and prosperity.

The writer is an economist, author, professional on national export promotion and country branding; former executive director of Uganda Export Promotion Board and the current deputy executive director of Uganda Free Zones and Export Promotions Authority