ABSTRACT
During elections, parties attempt to attract as many votes as they can in order to win as many seats as they can. This chapter considers the timing of the election, exploring the ways in which the parties sought to extract advantage from the choice of the election date. It examines a number of features relating to the advance preparations undertaken by the parties. The chapter also examines how they went about organising preelection tasks such as candidate nomination and targeting of seats, the drafting of manifestos and preparation of a campaign strategy, what kind of organisational structures were put in place to run the campaigns. It outlines the campaign alliances that emerged among the main parties and explores how they dealt with the main policy, personality, and other issues of the campaign. The chapter then examines the relationship between the parties and the media during the campaign. Finally, it looks at the expenditure of the parties on the campaign.
