A Pragma-Discourse Study of the Campaign Manifesto of the 2023 Labour Party (Lp) Presidential Candidate

This study examines the 2023 election manifesto of the LP presidential candidate. The objectives of the investigation are to analyse the pragma-discourse features in the election manifesto used by the LP presidential candidate to present himself positively and others negatively, examine the speech acts in the election manifesto through which the LP candidate presented his political agenda, describe the ideologies that influenced the policies of the LP candidate and reveal the covert meanings in the election manifesto expressed by the LP candidate. The pragma-discourse features used in the manifesto of the LP presidential candidate are transitivity processes (material, mental and verbal), sentence types (simple and complex), cohesive relations (reference, additive and adversative conjunctions), deixis (temporal and spatial), inversion, and thematisation. The LP presidential candidate employs these features to present himself positively and other political opponents negatively. Peter Obi employed commissive and assertive speech acts. The commissive speech act conveys the LP candidate's plans in the election manifesto. The Assertive Speech Act states the policies and reforms of the LP candidate as well as his political opponents' limitations. The study shows that the LP candidate employed covert and subtle means to brandish his political opponents' limitations and inefficiency.