Public Relations Strategic Mapping and Credible Election Administration in West Africa

Abstract

In this study, we assessed the effect of and potential of public relations (PR) strategic mapping on attitudinal changes of both the electorates and staff of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the areas of voter education, voter participation, acceptance of electoral outcomes as well as building strong internal controls. Anchoring the study on participatory theory, data generated primarily from four hundred respondents selected using multi-staged sampling technique were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The four research questions were answered and the results from the use of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of logistic regression shows that Public relations strategic mapping (PRSM) have made significant influence on voter education, participation, acceptance of outcome, as well as building strong internal control. The study also noted that PRSM have enormous potentials yet to be harnessed, the odd ratios of 9.213 for voter participation, 12.962 for voter education, 7.145 for electoral result acceptance and, 3.133 for internal control showing that, any unit increase in PRSM effort create significant impacts on attitudinal changes among the citizenly. Hence, we concluded that PR strategic mapping remains the magic wand in changing people’s perception about INEC and also helping INEC in building strong internal control. Therefore, the study recommended more efficient usage of PR strategic mapping in amending the battered image of INEC before the electorates to improve voter participation and acceptance of election outcomes among other things.