A female political strategist has warned the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Dickon Mitchell that it has to be on top of its political game in order to unseat the incumbent New National Party (NNP) of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell in the upcoming general election.
Speaking to THE NEW TODAY from her base outside of the island, she said that Congress lost the last two elections 15-0 to NNP in both 2013 and 2018 due to problems in putting systems in place to properly identify and bring out its supporters on Election Day to provide a serious challenge “to the well-oiled” election machinery of its opponent.
She urged the NDC, under its new leader, a 44-year old attorney-at-law to engage in serious political work especially with the use of the Hot and Cold Canvassing method of the Voters list and the “One in Twenty” in order to become competitive in the upcoming poll.
According to the political strategist, there are four main pillars to be addressed in winning an election – the rally, finance, the house-to-house visits, as well as the Hot and Cold Canvassing and the use of the “One-in-Twenty” system to bring out voters on Election Day.
She said the political rally is what people like and that is considered as “the sexy part of it” but is not as important as the other main planks of a successful campaign.
She also cited the House-to-house visits taking place at the community level but identified the most boring but important part of any political campaign is “the detailed clinical canvassing” which involves the Hot and Cold Canvassing along with the One-in Twenty” which is done in the back room outside of the glare of the public.
“The most important pillar (in winning an election) is the canvassing – the cold, the hot and the One-in Twenty,” she remarked.
The female political strategist said she sensed that the NDC operatives did not seemingly understand the dynamics of the use of the hot and cold canvassing and the “One-in-Twenty” system to be competitive in electoral politics at the last two polls.
“When you do both Cold Canvass and Hot Canvass (Face-to-Face) you then have to reconcile the Hot Canvas with the Cold Canvass. After the reconciliation that becomes the working list to guide your party – so you know who you have to work with and who you have and who you don’t even have to work with because they wouldn’t change – and that is the key,” she said.
“After you do both the Hot and Cold Canvassing that is when you (go) in a room trying to figure out the voters in each constituency – with people from the Polling divisions trying to access the voters”.
“The critical thing is that they have to reconcile the Hot Canvassing with the Cold Canvassing – going and see if we were right and where we were wrong and where we were not sure (about each voter) and that will be your consolidating group to work with”.
The official expressed fears that the NDC did a poor job in the canvasing aspect unlike the NNP and suffered heavily at the polls in 2013 and 2018.
She urged Dickon Mitchell to ensure that an effective machinery is put in place to make the “One-in-Twenty” system very effective on Election Day to back up the Canvassing that was done by the NDC field workers.
She noted that in the 2018 poll, the NDC brought all of its election machinery people to the Trade Centre two weeks before the election for a session to do canvassing on a national basis for the various constituencies.
She said: “That can’t work in an election – you have to go in the community itself and get 20 people in a Polling Division. You can’t bring one bus load of people for the whole constituency to do canvassing. No”.
The strategist urged Dickon Mitchell to ensure that at the level of each Polling Division, the NDC foot soldiers are given a list “with the names of his 20 best friends that you are accustomed to chatting with.”
“You have that list and you have to ensure that that 20 people end up in the Ballot box on Election Day,” she said.
“If you need transport, if you need help to bring them in the vehicle – all of that has to be organised so you bring them dey (to vote on Election Day),” he added.
According to the political strategist, the votes are there in Grenada for the opposition to defeat Prime Minister Mitchell and NNP at the polls but NDC “has to search for it – you have to fish for it and get it.”
She is speculating that based on the amount of political work that is now taking place in the country, it is likely that April to May is when Dr. Mitchell will set the date for the election.
The aging 75-year old Grenadian leader is aiming for his 6th win at the polls in his country’s national elections.