HEADSTART. Political aspirants and their campaign managers listen to GLI director Dr Dixon Yasay in his discussion on effective campaign management during the election season. Supplied photo.

By Matthan Luceño

Local candidates and campaigners for this year’s elections converged at the campaign management workshop of Xavier University’s Governance and Leadership Institute (GLI) held in early January at XU AVR 1.

Candidates from Buenavista, Agusan del Norte; Quezon, Valencia, and Sumilao in Bukidnon; Tagum City, Davao del Norte; Baganga, Davao Oriental; Talisayan, Misamis Oriental; and Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur actively engaged in a two-day workshop dubbed as “Run to Win: Winning the Local Elections through Effective Campaign Message Delivery,” in hopes of getting a lead in the local elections this May.

GLI director Dr Dixon Yasay emphasized the key role of an academic institution in educating the local community towards clean and honest elections as well as in building the competencies of local political aspirants and campaign workers.

The workshop focused on the vision, mission, and values of the political aspirants. Vision entailed the determination of how a candidate would inspire people; mission referred to a candidate’s primary purpose for running which defines his campaign; and values tackled the “non-negotiables” of a candidate or his/her moral standpoints.

Other key topics included the use of social media for campaigns, grassroots organizing, and election guidelines and protocols.

Dedicated to building the capacity of the public sector, GLI aims “to be a premier leadership institute in Mindanao by 2020.”