Virtual campaigns didn’t work for female candidates-Report
By Prossy Kisakye
Female candidates in 2021 general elections were not able to reach out to their voters due to the scientific mode of campaign as directed by the electoral commission.
This is contained in a report released by Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) in Kampala aimed at discovering how women in politics and in electioneering process had used and been perceived by online users.
The electoral commission directed politicians to use virtual campaigns to reach out to their voters in prevention of further spread of covid-19 through mass rallies.
However Juliet Nanfuka, a researcher and communication specialist in CIPESA, notes that according to their findings many female candidates had fewer accounts compared to their male counterparts and many couldn’t utilize them to speak to their voters.
She adds that the few who managed to campaign via social media were demoralized as they faced a lot of challenges including abusive messages, using their old pictures to de-campaign them among others.
