UAE Elections: expenses that did not pay back?

Forbes Arabia had an interesting article in its February edition which talked about the elections that took place in the UAE; however, they discussed it from a different angle:

How much was the election's promotional expenses totalled to?

It started by comparing the UAE elections with Bahrain’s elections that took place in almost the same period. In Bahrain, the elections were directed towards the whole public while the UAE’s election was targeted for 6689 person elected by the government. In other words, the “audience” is much less.


Having said that, the Bahraini Budget was: 10 million Dinar while the Emarati’s budget totaled to 300 million dirhams within the first 10 days for all the seven emirates according to Dahi Khalfan.


According to three candidates who have not succeeded in their elections, they stated that the average daily expenditure was 15 million dirhams.


Many of the candidates have mentioned that the average expenditure on the promotional campaign was 150,000 dhs per person. That was what Mohammad Falaknaz (lost) that his campaign amounted to 200,000Dhs that were divided into the website, newspaper ads and a seminar.


But the question is, is money the important factor in such campaigns?


Salim Khamees (dubai candidate who didn’t win) stated that his budget was was less than 20,000 dhs yet he believed that he did spread his message efficiently.


There was a part which discussed that there was correlation between media personnel and the candidates where some have paid what amounted to 20,000dhs in return to have their ads and press releases in their magazines.


The article also mentioned that the election committee have three main rules:
1. No sponsorships allowed from any sector.
2. A budget ceiling from their campaigns which could reach up to 2Million dirhams.
3. No supporting funds from any party governmental it was or personal.


Many of the candidates have mentioned that their success was due to their social relations or their family’s relations rather than the effect of the promotional campaign.


I wonder, are our advertising means that expensive? Is the high price in such promotional campaigns was due to the high prices of the media services or what could it be?

For the next elections, how would they go about their elections; the most known gets the highest votes or the one with the most informative campaign gains the votes?

A Lost Dot:

If you are planning to be one of the candidates, start saving from now…and don’t forget the inflation rate effect.