Cyberspace – new battleground for political parties
Major parties enhance outreach; PPP remains aloof.
LAHORE:
Political parties are all set to contest the next parliamentary election on the airwaves and in cyberspace.
Parties such as Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are using social media and web portals to attract urban and young voters between the ages of 18 and 25 who form more than 60 per cent of Pakistan’s population and are likely to influence the outcome of the future election.
Though the date for next election has not been announced yet, cyber warfare among major contenders has already begun.
More than 30 volunteers work round-the-clock to keep the PTI afloat on the waves. The official website gets more than 100,000 hits daily from across the country and abroad. Its ongoing membership campaign conducted through SMS, web and manual forms boasts of more than a million members to date. PTI’s official Facebook page ‘Imran the next prime minister’ has 500,000 members while PTI’s official party page has 400,000 members so far.
“The traffic on our portals is so huge that sometimes even we can’t keep pace with it,” said Imran Ghazali, head of PTI’s social media.
PTI’s archrival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) also launched an attractive website with a lot of ‘razzmatazz’ to woo young voters. The Sharif brothers are shown in glittering backgrounds addressing public meetings.
“Currently, the website gets around 1,200 hits per day,” said Asim Khan, Media Coordinator for the PML-N. “To tell you the truth, we were not as receptive to the idea of cyber warfare but the PTI has compelled other parties to go online,” Khan said. “To get into the world of blogs, we are working on a new website pmln.tv,” he added.
Even Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is maintaining an impressive web portal that is visited by 3,000 people from across the country and abroad.
The JI is also running a Facebook page that has 40,000 users while a separate Facebook page for Amir Munawar Hasan has 23,000 users.
“We launched this website in 1996 but we revamped it three years ago,” said Shamsuddin, the party’s IT head. “I strongly believe that cyber space and social media will have a huge impact on the next general elections,” Shamsuddin said.
For the PPP, it seems web and social media are far less important. The PPP runs an official website which is not interactive and the party has no official presence on Facebook either.
Its official website “used to get 10,000 hits when the party was in opposition,” according to website manager Amjad Akhlaq.
Prominent blogger and columnist Raza Rumi feels that though social media and the web have taken the lead in communication, in a society like Pakistan, it will not be able to ‘make or break’ anything. “The use of the web and social media has increased tremendously but it is unlikely to affect voting patterns in the next elections,” Rumi said.
Blogger, columnist and anchor Javed Chaudhry disagrees. “The line dividing rural and urban people is fading fast as villages too now have access to the internet and TV. I think the impact of social media and the web will play a pivotal role in the next elections,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2012.
Political parties are all set to contest the next parliamentary election on the airwaves and in cyberspace.
Parties such as Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are using social media and web portals to attract urban and young voters between the ages of 18 and 25 who form more than 60 per cent of Pakistan’s population and are likely to influence the outcome of the future election.
Though the date for next election has not been announced yet, cyber warfare among major contenders has already begun.
More than 30 volunteers work round-the-clock to keep the PTI afloat on the waves. The official website gets more than 100,000 hits daily from across the country and abroad. Its ongoing membership campaign conducted through SMS, web and manual forms boasts of more than a million members to date. PTI’s official Facebook page ‘Imran the next prime minister’ has 500,000 members while PTI’s official party page has 400,000 members so far.
“The traffic on our portals is so huge that sometimes even we can’t keep pace with it,” said Imran Ghazali, head of PTI’s social media.
PTI’s archrival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) also launched an attractive website with a lot of ‘razzmatazz’ to woo young voters. The Sharif brothers are shown in glittering backgrounds addressing public meetings.
“Currently, the website gets around 1,200 hits per day,” said Asim Khan, Media Coordinator for the PML-N. “To tell you the truth, we were not as receptive to the idea of cyber warfare but the PTI has compelled other parties to go online,” Khan said. “To get into the world of blogs, we are working on a new website pmln.tv,” he added.
Even Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is maintaining an impressive web portal that is visited by 3,000 people from across the country and abroad.
The JI is also running a Facebook page that has 40,000 users while a separate Facebook page for Amir Munawar Hasan has 23,000 users.
“We launched this website in 1996 but we revamped it three years ago,” said Shamsuddin, the party’s IT head. “I strongly believe that cyber space and social media will have a huge impact on the next general elections,” Shamsuddin said.
For the PPP, it seems web and social media are far less important. The PPP runs an official website which is not interactive and the party has no official presence on Facebook either.
Its official website “used to get 10,000 hits when the party was in opposition,” according to website manager Amjad Akhlaq.
Prominent blogger and columnist Raza Rumi feels that though social media and the web have taken the lead in communication, in a society like Pakistan, it will not be able to ‘make or break’ anything. “The use of the web and social media has increased tremendously but it is unlikely to affect voting patterns in the next elections,” Rumi said.
Blogger, columnist and anchor Javed Chaudhry disagrees. “The line dividing rural and urban people is fading fast as villages too now have access to the internet and TV. I think the impact of social media and the web will play a pivotal role in the next elections,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2012.