The single greatest obstacle to effective collaboration between electoral managers and the media is a culture of mistrust – and sometimes outright hostility – from both parties.

One aspect of this mistrust or hostility is a breakdown in communication. A lack of communication between an EMB and the media is a serious problem. It is an obstacle to achieving many of the objectives discussed in this topic area. A failure of communication will make the policy and regulatory role of the EMB much more difficult to achieve. It will also create serious obstacles to accurate media reporting of the electoral process. The breakdown of accurate media reporting will not lead to a vacuum – it will lead to inaccurate reporting.

Yet, far more serious than a breakdown of communication between EMB and media is the impact that this can have on the EMB’s capacity to communicate with the electorate. Media relations, important as they are, only form part of an overall communications strategy. An EMB’s media work will be more effective if it is clearly placed within a well-considered approach to communications.

Too many electoral management bodies downplay the importance of communication. They proceed on the assumption that all that is required is for them to work in an efficient and professional manner. Yet their efficiency and professionalism is not taken for granted by the public, the political parties or the media. EMBs need to develop strategies and skills to project what they do and how they do it to a wider audience.

Better communication will lead to an improved public image for the EMB, which brings obvious advantages in various aspects of its work. However, there are also two principled reasons why EMBs have an obligation to communicate:

• Voters have a right to information about how they are to exercise their right to vote. This includes information about the work of the EMB.
• The EMB is accountable to all stakeholders in the electoral process, including the voters and the candidates or political parties. With accountability comes an obligation to be transparent in its workings.

Developing a communications plan

The temptation in planning communications is always to do it in reverse order, starting with the well-tested techniques – press releases, news conferences etc – rather than with the overall objectives, messages and audience. This is tempting, but dangerous. Organisations (not just EMBs) stick with what is familiar and easy for them. This may not necessarily be the most means to communicate their messages to the required audience.

There are, of course, different approaches to communications planning. That developed by the Institute for Media, Politics and Civil Society is a particularly good one. But all effective approaches are likely to have the following steps in common (in more or less this order):

• Analysing your own strengths and weaknesses.
• Defining your message.
• Defining your audience.
• Developing a media strategy.
• Developing techniques of media relations.