Osun 2022: PAN commends slight improvement in campaign messages, warns against vote buying
Posted by Ahmed Iyanda | 2 years ago | 1,380 times
Positive Agenda Nigeria(PAN), a non-governmental organization led by a group of academics and independent researchers dedicated to adopting evidence-based approaches to preserve a favorable climate for Nigeria's socio economic and political activities, has commended some new approaches some political parties in Osun State recently deployed to promote their candidates ahead of the Saturday July 16, 2022 gubernatorial election.
This was disclosed in the organization's second weekly report on election campaign monitoring ahead of the election.
It would be recalled that in the previous week, 60 messages were examined from Facebook and newspapers. However, a new report examined a total of 85 messages, showing an increase of 17.2%.
For both weeks, a total of 77 messages attacks were traced while 82 and 18 traves of acclaims and defenses were found respectively.
Attacks were the messages that denigrated personality traits of candidates and leadership quality and/or competence of the parties as well as candidates to govern the state. Acclaims were the messages that show that the parties and the candidates were better in terms of personality traits, leadership quality as well as competence in delivering quality public goods to the citizens and residents in the state. Defenses were the messages that refuted negative elements pushed out by actors against candidates and political parties.
From the 85 messages, a total of 101 traces of the campaign strategies were found against 76 traces which were discovered during week one.
Weekly analysis of the strategies shows that the level of using attacks reduced in the second week of the monitoring while acclaims and defenses increased significantly.
According to the analysis, attacks reduced by 10% in the second week, while accalims and defenses increased by 34% and 22% respectively.
As a result, the analysis identified modest improvement in the number of traces that resonate with campaign and/or policy issues. "A total of 106 traces of the previously discussed issues or programmes were discovered in week one. In week two, analysis discovered 146 traces, an increase of 16%," the reports reads.
The report noted that actors were leveraging less regulation of Facebook for significant deployment of attacks campaign strategy.
"Our analysts discovered that this platform was used for newspapers, Twitter and radio jingles for attacking personalities as well as policies or activities.
The report reads, “We implore all the parties, especially the two major parties, to sustain the atmosphere of increased acclaims instead of being attack-inclined in their campaigns. In the same vein, we enjoin the political parties to as well keep on focusing on issues of the state. The improved focus on programmes and policies of the candidates and their political parties should be continued. PAN commends the positive slight deviation observed in the parties and candidates’ engagement this week.
PAN condemns the introduction of insinuation of vote buying capacity by one of the candidates. "It is too early for such issues to rear its ugly head in the campaign atmosphere for the Osun 2022 election." For a state like Osun, bringing up policy issues and campaign programmes using radio as a means of communication is commendable. It allows the people at the grassroots level to have access to campaign issues.”
Click here to download the report.
