Poll aspirants get campaign tips

By JAYNE SAFIHAO
ASPIRING election candidates are being trained on how to properly conduct their campaigns.
The Australian Labor Party International is conducting the training in conjunction with the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates Commission.
The two-day event is intended to give the candidates some insight into their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.
The training team consists of Dr Lesley Clark, a former MP in the Australian government and John Varey.
Of some of the topics covered included political leadership in PNG, campaign planning, campaign budgeting, vote counting, electorate research and targets.
The SWOT analysis proved very helpful for the 13 participants, some coming as far as Wewak.
ALPI general secretary Kayam Maher said knowing the opponent’s strength and weakness was helpful in planning and strategising.
The training was conducted in Port Moresby last month.
It will be next held in Mt Hagen from April 3-4.
Varey said if candidates had a flow chart which indicated the number of wards, LLGs or clans in a particular electorate, and with a running voters’ database, candidates would actually know how many votes they would win.