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Election Bridge Asia-Pacific Conference 2023

by Rey Padit

Election Campaigning in Times of Crises

The past years have been challenging because the pandemic crisis has exposed both the strengths and weaknesses of different political regimes, but what remains steadfast is the resolve of governments, parties, politicians, and the people to continually seek for fresh and strong legitimacy in governing the public, more so in solving the crisis. This year's Election Bridge Conference looked deeper on how certain issues influenced campaigns such as the impact of the pandemic, geopolitical ramifications, growing economic inequality, increased political polarization and infighting within political parties.

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After 3 years of in-person meeting hiatus due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Regional Programme Political Dialogue Asia (KAS PDA) has once again brought party leaders from Asia and Pacific to exchange experiences and expertise on election campaigning, under the Election Bridge Asia-Pacific platform last October 13-14, 2022 in Singapore.

The past years have been challenging because the pandemic crisis has exposed both the strengths and weaknesses of different political regimes, but what remains steadfast is the resolve of governments, parties, politicians, and the people to continually seek for fresh and strong legitimacy in governing the public, more so in solving the crisis. This year's Election Bridge Conference looked deeper on how certain issues influenced campaigns such as the impact of the pandemic, geopolitical ramifications, growing economic inequality, increased political polarization and infighting within political parties.

The conference was officially opened by Mr. Andreas Klein, the new director of KAS PDA where he emphasized the value of such platform where like-minded political parties can openly and honestly share, discuss, and learn strategies in campaigning and management of party organizations. He expressed gratitude towards the representative of the parties for their trust and confidence on the Foundation and the Election Bridge as a dialogue platform. This was supported by Mr. Frank Priess, Deputy Head of the European and International Cooperation Department of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, where he expressed the need to deepen this kind of exchange since challenges experienced by parties in Asia, Pacific and Europe are more or less the same, thus, providing a rich environment for cross-learning and eventually strengthening their own respective party organizations.

Dr. Stefan Hennewig, General Manager of the Christian Democract Union (CDU) delivered his keynote address on the future of party coalitions in Germany. He presented an overview of the German political parties and party system and coalitions at the federal and state levels. Presently, it is the “traffic light” coalition (SPD/Greens/FDP) that governs Germany, while CDU is finding its way into the opposition after 16 years of being the main party in government under Former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership. Meanwhile, on the state level, CDU’s coalition is dwindling down to being part in only 8 states and could be reduced after the upcoming state elections. The presence of party coalitions in Germany can be explained due to the fact that the country has traditionally had proportional representation and multi-party electoral systems where it is possible that no party can emerge with a simple majority vote, thus the need for parties to form coalition government.

The weak and declining performance of CDU in the past federal and state elections could be attributed to many factors. One of these factors is the pandemic crisis. Compared to other crises, such as the European Migration Crisis before the 2017 elections, the Central European Flood in 2013, and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis in 2009 which have helped CDU gain votes in the elections that followed after each crisis. On the other hand, the COVID-19 crisis has challenged the party in government to be decisive in its pandemic response, to balance between big government policies and liberal values and the need to offer social protection amidst the economic insecurity. These governance responses, due to the pandemic, have contributed to changes in party behavior by becoming more connected/relatable –as a way of effectively addressing the impact of the pandemic- rather than standing on clear programs. The focus on becoming more relatable/connected with the voters has strengthened the personalization of politics at the expense of clear party programs, values, and principles. Without a popular candidate like Angela Merkel, CDU will have to revisit its roots, strengthen its core, regain its position and crystalize its programs in order to be relevant to the current and future of Germany.

After the keynote address, two panel discussions ensued. The first session was about “challenges to intra-party democracy” with Ms. Malou Tiquia (CEO, PUBLiCUS Asia) as the moderator together with Mr. Sagun Sunder Lawoti (Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Nepal), Mr. Erdenebold Sukhbaatar (Democratic Party, Mongolia), and Mr. Jordan Jay Antolin (Centrist Democratic Party, the Philippines) as discussants for the panel. Party splits and switching are common phenomena for Asian political parties and Ms. Tiquia posed a question to the panel as to whether this behavior is more strategic for party members, especially for political candidates. The discussants share common insights. One argument why party splits and switching are common is the low degree of party institutionalization in the region. Second explanation is the lack of state subsidy for parties which exposes the organization to individual or business patrons. Third reason is the low cost of the split and switching, the non-presence or insignificant punishment for such action. Fourth justification is the difference in electoral and party systems where elections are more focused on the candidates than the party programs. Lastly, this phenomenon exists due to the lack of clear party ideology and policy positions that facilitate clear differentiation of options among voters.

The second panel discussion tackled the “use of technology in party management” where Ms. Charu Pragya, Media Panelist from the Bharatiya Janata Party moderated the discussion with Mr. Simon Berger (Liberal Party, Australia), Mr. Ibrahim Waheed (Maldivian Democratic Party, Maldives), Mr. William Durning (National Party, New Zealand), and Mr. Oh Yonghee (People Power Party, South Korea) as discussants. The discussion generated some general insights on how technology is optimized by parties in the region. One insight is the preference to develop, internally, party intranet and apps for their organizational affairs like meetings, document processing, membership registration, campaigning and communication in general. Another common use of technology is for election campaigning. The presence of alternative media platforms is providing parties the opportunity to reach more voters efficiently and effectively. Lastly, there is an agreement among the discussants that third party media platforms are becoming restrictive due to data privacy which reduces the potential for micro targeting when it comes to general and political communication.

To wrap-up the entire meeting, all participants went for a workshop on the future of party cooperation in Asia-Pacific. Mr. Rey C. Padit, Programme Manager for Political Cooperation of KAS PDA facilitated a world café workshop where participants have to brainstorm and provide insights on three areas namely, publication, alternative engagement platform, and capacity building measures. The results from this workshop will become the basis for future improvements of Election Bridge.

The 7th Election Bridge Asia-Pacific gathered a total of 17 participants representing 10 countries and political parties.

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Contact

Rey Padit

Rey Padit

Programme Manager, Political Cooperation

rey.padit@kas.de +65 6603 6161

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