Between party and personality

What does it take to win an election? Is it a charismatic leader; the likes of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto; or is it the rallying cry of a party ideology? Going by a recent opinion poll, Pakistanis believe it’s a bit of both.
A recent Gilani Poll/Gallup Pakistan survey shows that the public is divided on this matter, with 51 percent of the respondents saying the vote should be for the party, while 48 percent saying the vote should be for the person.
Interestingly, 49 percent of rural respondents said the vote should be for the person, while among urban respondents, this number was lower (46 percent). This finding seems to suggest that personalities hold more political influence in rural areas. Among men, majority (51 percent) said a vote should go to the person, whereas only 44 percent of women said that a person deserves vote more than a party.
Perhaps a more detailed survey that takes into account age and education levels, could help reach a conclusion whether the voting pattern is emerging in favour of the political parties or not.
That said, the current political mood in the country suggests a somewhat mixed emphasis on leadership personality as well as party. The campaigning of two hotly contending parties, PML-N and PTI both suggest this theme.
The former is banking on party electables as well its performance in the past. The latter, which is quite short of electables, is banking largely on leadership personality of Imran Khan – though his message from the hospital bed suggests that he wants people to vote for his party’s mandate.
Perhaps one of the key differences between the two is that the PTI’s politics relies more on politics of transformation and change than its major adversary the PML-N.
Bear in mind that transformational politics hinges on transformative leadership, which, according to political scientists, essentially hinges more on personality driven politics than on parties.
But just as the people of Pakistan are split in their opinion about what is important for winning an election and leading the country; so the political parties are also eager to offer a bit of both to voters. And over this weekend, we shall see whose recipe wins the prize.