Lunch and Learn, Election Ideas

I've served as a screening judge for the Walter Cronkite Awards in political reporting, presented by the Center for Reliable Resources at the Norman Lear Center. The center produced an excellent video on issue-oriented election coverage, and it was a good start to our "lunch and learn" program to generate election ideas. The 15-minute blocks given to the political parties on TVM and VOM so far haven't generated much debate about some of the serious issues facing the Maldives. So it was interesting to show some of the ideas from American TV stations that have moved beyond the horse race to cover issues. For example, KING TV in Seattle invited candidates to have dinner with an ordinary family and discuss their concerns. We hope to start a "question of the day" segment to show where each candidate stands on the issues. This can be complicated in a country where there are at least eight registered parties, some of the parties have no candidates and some of the candidates have no party affiliation.