Les femmes rwandaises et la campagne électorale - Inter ...

Rwandan Women and the Electoral Campaign • 30 - 31 July 2003
The Electoral Campaign: Candidates' Capacity Audit
Ms Phoebe Asiyo, Constitutional Commissioner,
Chairperson of the Women’s Political Caucus, Kenya
Introduction
By the end of this session, you should be able to clarify your reasons for entering into elective politics and apply
problem analysis in deciding your party, constituency and general strategy. The decision to run for public office is
made early in the election chain and only after considering a number of factors. This session will take you
through a number of the most critical factors to be taken into account when deciding to run. It will also give you
some assessment criteria, which you can use in deciding whether or not you are ready to run for office.
Factors to consider
Before making the decision to run, you must first and foremost size-up the constituency and the national
environment you will be operating in. In so doing, you must ask the fundamental question: "What other choices
are going to be made by the voters I want to woo?" These choices will sometimes determine your victory or lack
of it. For instance, if the voters will be electing a President as well, the dominant Presidential candidate in your
constituency is critical to your bid.
Your personal assessment must be made against the background of your environment. This should tell you if you
are up to it or not. There are many factors to consider, but we have isolated eight of these here.
Reasons for running
Your reasons for running have to be clear in your mind from the outset. Your campaign messages should be
developed around your reasons. But remember, your reasons for running must have an element of selfishness.
According to one political philosopher, good politicians must have "selfishness, selfishness and selfishness". To
this philosopher, selfishness is a virtue in politics. In other words, a good candidate is one who admits that her
ambition for political office is the main driving force in her campaign. This will provide a campaign with sufficient
impetus as opposed to candidates who believe that they are running for office to serve the community. Service to
the community is what you do after the election.
Your political capital
How much are you worth? If votes were money, what would your price tag be? Consider the following aspects:
• Your level of influence in the constituency;
• Your position as a leader at the level of national politics, the corporate or business sector, development
sector, civil society, etc.
• Your past political experience;
• The groups you can count on for support at the constituency level;
• You relationship with political party leadership;
• Your leadership record.
Family Support
Does your family support your decision to run? Does it have the stamina to sustain the rigours of an election
campaign?
63