Electoral campaigning is the process by which a campaign organisation (be it a party, candidate, or special interest organisation) seeks electoral support in a bid to win political office (see Farrell 1996, Kavanagh 2000:29 and Nelson 1999). This has most recently been adopted as a comprehensive Campaign Cycle Approach by many international assistance providers and indigenous political parties and other electoral actors. This approach involves the pre-electoral preparation period, the electoral (Election Day) operational period, and the post-electoral strategy period.[1]
The campaign period is the period just before an election. Many countries choose to define a set campaign period during which special rules apply to parties, candidates, and media. In reality, campaigning for public office is usually done for a longer period of time than the "official" campaign period specified in the electoral calendar. In other countries, there are no laws or regulations at all to define a clear electoral campaign period.
In some countries, there are also regulations specifying a period of “campaign silence”, a time frame or a certain number of days right before the elections in which no campaigning at all is permitted. This regulation may be restricted only to the visual media, like television or cinemas.
There are several campaign issues that can affect the fairness and integrity of the election. These include the timing of the campaign, ability to campaign freely, the neutrality of electoral officials during the campaign, security for participants, and free access to media.
Factors influencing Electoral Campaigning
Electoral campaigns can be very different in different countries and between elections. Many factors influence the nature of the campaign, including the type of office the election is for; the legislative framework for electoral campaigning (such as electoral laws), cultural habits, and media outreach; the electoral and party systems, etc. Campaign strategies are on the one hand influenced by the political context in which they occur, and on the other hand affected by the political parties who conduct the electoral campaign. (Kavanagh 2000)
Electoral campaigning varies heavily depending on the type of political system. A presidential system tends to promote candidate-centred campaigns, while parliamentary systems favour political parties (see Farrell 1996). In general terms, federalism tends to promote decentralized campaigns, whereas a centralized political system leads to a national electoral campaign.
The electoral system design can influence the way a party campaigns and the way political elites behave. The type of the electoral system may, for instance, determine the broader political climate, encourage rough competitiveness between parties, or promote the building of alliances between parties. Electoral system design may also encourage parties to be broadly based and accommodate widely varying perspectives. Proportional representation list systems, where voters choose between parties and policy programmes, are said to foster campaign centralization. They encourage parties to campaign beyond the districts in which they are strong, because the political parties aim to increase their overall vote totals regardless where the votes come from.
In Plurality/Majority Systems, on the other hand, voters tend to choose between candidates rather than among political parties and programmes. In a single-member-district system, the campaigning tends to focus on the particular candidate and his or her electoral campaign and issues relevant to that particular district.
The type of the party system may also influence the campaigning strategies of the political parties. In two-party systems, which often evolve out of Majority/Plurality Systems, the campaign is often heavily competitive, and the parties compete for the marginal votes to gain a majority (see Farrell 1996). In multiparty systems, on the other hand (which often emerge out of proportional representation systems), parties do not necessarily compete for the marginal votes, because theses usually aren’t crucial for the parties’ seats in parliament. But still, the major parties may compete very intensively against each other in PR Systems, especially if the parties are forming opposing blocks and pre-election alliances.
The availability of campaign finance partly determines the nature of the campaign, especially the professionalisation of campaigns.
