How to win in the coming 2010 elections

Who is likely to clinch the Top Executive post of the land come May 10, 2010? For Juan Ponce-Enrile, if its not Erap Estrada then it is most likely Gibo Teodoro. For Miriam Defensor-Santiago, it will be a three-cornered fight among Noynoy Aquino, Manny Villar and Erap Estrada. Note that the names they mentioned here already adopted them as guest candidates. :-)

Having experienced two national campaigns already, the best way to win the presidency is (a) allow your candidate to be bashed, criticized and maligned by the Arroyo mafia, especially the First Gentleman; and (b) have the widest grassroots network possible. This was the formula used by Antonio Trillianes and coincidentally, Alan Peter Cayetano. Both candidates spent the least in their respective campaigns in 2004.

The perennial problem of all those who campaign for national posts is simply how to protect their votes after the voting. The election is composed of three stages: pre-election, the voting and counting.

It is mostly in the counting that futures are won and lost. The pre-election, for those who know, is just cosmetics. You just do that to establish an impression. It does not count that much really in the actual voting nor of the counting. The pre-election or campaigning stage is just to show everyone that you're there, that you are running and that you are one of the strongest names in the winning circle.

Now, what is really critical for every candidate is the counting of the ballots. Of course, now it would be different because it will be an automated type. Hence, if it is automated, the preparation to secure your votes happens prior to the elections. Meaning, first, you have to be with a major political party with permission to look into the source codes. And second, you have to be under the good graces of the regional and provincial/city COMELEC directors and poll officers to ensure that your votes are "counted" by their machines.

Securing their friendship is half the battle. Monitoring them completes it.

You need a strong and vigilant network in every legislative district to ensure compliance. You don't just sit and let your "friends" do the work, you need to make sure that whatever happens, your votes are counted.

An election campaign machine should be built like the British and the US armies. Effective inventory management systems should be implemented. Strict, regimentalized teams should be deployed while special operations teams are just there, waiting in the wings, ready for deployment.

A common organizational setup should be:

1. A Management Team composed of the candidate, his close relative, friends and strategic partners. The candidate should employ his closest relative as his COO. Funds should be strictly managed by the candidate and the COO. The rest are just there to infuse newer thinkings and strategies.

2. A Legal team composed of a competent and experienced election lawyer. The lawyer will head the legal team and the team should at least have one or two lawyers or under-bar members for every legislative district, or if it is not possible, in every province at least. Most of them should be legal volunteers or what we call "para-legals". If you don't have the money to hire full-time lawyers in every province, just hire para-legals and deploy law students and full-time lawyers should only be deployed in key strategic places.

3. Political liaison team composed of experienced grassroots organizers and political operators who will represent the candidate before local government officials and social influencers. This is very crucial because they do the dirty work for the candidate. They close deals with local government executives and influential people in the area.

4. Propaganda Team composed of two sets: Publicists/Media Relations and Campaigners. Media Relations team, as the name implies, write press releases and interacts with both the national and the local media. Campaigners are those who go to the barangays and cities and municipalities and do the dirty work of postering, leafleting and flyering. Campaigners should be composed of three distinct crews: those who will conduct house-to-house or what I call "dalahiras"; forward teams who will go to the rally site a day before the candidate and raise his posters and distribute propaganda materials and another campaign team who will conduct "virtual rallies" and postering operations in other areas.

5. Core administrative team composed of the following: finance/treasury, clerical/appointments, events crew and inventory. Finance controls inflow and outflow of campaign funds. Clerical assures the smooth calendaring and balance of the candidate's schedule. Events is the one who prepares the way for the candidate especially in his speaking engagements and of course, inventory, which is responsible for the cost-effective deployment of propaganda/campaign materials.

The key really is, the Management team should hold every single team together with just one strategic goal---ensure the victory of the candidate. Winning is the only criteria of success, everything else is mush.