Almost half of voters are below 40
POLITICAL campaigning in Negeri Sembilan is no longer confined to ceramah, banners, manifestos and face-to-face visits. In the 16th Negeri Sembilan State Election, scheduled for Aug 1, an equally important campaign is taking place on smartphone screens.
Candidates and political parties are actively using TikTok, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook to introduce themselves, explain policies, respond to controversies, and influence voters’ political perceptions.
Short videos, livestreams, infographics, personal stories, trending audio, behind-thescenes recordings and informal question-and-answer sessions have become important components of contemporary electoral communication.
This transformation is particularly significant because younger voters constitute a substantial part of the Negeri Sembilan electorate.
Almost half of voters are below 40
A total of 889,490 people are eligible to vote in the 2026 Negeri Sembilan election. The electoral roll contains 51,669 voters aged 18–20, 174,184 aged 21–29 and 194,014 aged 30–39. This means that approximately 419,867 voters, or 47.2 percent of the electorate, are below 40.
Voters aged 30–39 form the single largest age category, while the 225,853 voters below 30 account for 25.39 percent of all registered voters.
Using an electoral rather than a statutory definition, younger voters between 18 and 39 therefore represent almost half of Negeri Sembilan’s electoral market.
No serious political party can afford to communicate with this group solely through conventional political events.
Young working adults may not have the time to attend lengthy political gatherings. Students and first-time voters may also have limited direct contact with candidates. Social media allows political messages to reach them during their daily routines—while commuting, studying, working or relaxing at home.
Digital campaigning is consequently not merely an additional publicity tool. It has become part of the infrastructure through which voters encounter political information.
Malaysia is already a highly connected society
The importance of online campaigning must be understood within Malaysia’s broader digital environment. DataReportal estimated that Malaysia had 35.4 million internet users at the end of 2025, representing an internet penetration rate of approximately 98 per cent.
It also estimated 30.7 million social-media user identities, equivalent to 85 per cent of the total population.
Platform advertising tools reported a potential Malaysian reach of approximately 30.7 million adults on TikTok, 23 million users on Facebook, 16.1 million on Instagram and 3.6 million on Threads.
These numbers must be interpreted carefully because advertising reach does not necessarily represent unique or monthly active users. Individuals may have multiple accounts, while platform estimates are regularly revised. Nevertheless, the figures demonstrate the scale of Malaysia’s digital political audience.
Current campaign observations in Negeri Sembilan reflect this reality. Candidates from the major coalitions and smaller parties have expanded their presence across Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Threads and Instagram.
Their content includes manifesto infographics, explanations of current issues, livestreams, daily campaign updates, informal videos, point-of-view recordings, trending audio and behind-the-scenes material.
The campaign strategy is also increasingly segmented. Facebook and YouTube are commonly used to reach middle-aged and older voters, while TikTok, Instagram and Threads are employed more heavily to attract younger voters and those who remain undecided.
Each platform performs a different political function. Although the platforms are often discussed collectively as “social media”, they do not influence voters in the same manner.
TikTok functions primarily as a discovery and attention platform
Its recommendation system can expose users to political content even when they do not follow politicians or political parties. A short video can attract considerable attention when it uses humour, music, emotional storytelling, familiar language or a popular trend.
TikTok’s political strength is therefore not simply the size of a candidate’s follower base. Its importance lies in the possibility that content can travel beyond established political networks.
Research describes TikTok as an important space for youth political expression because it enables young people to reinterpret political messages through videos, sounds, memes, comments and remixed content. It can make politics appear more accessible, participatory and culturally relevant.
Instagram is particularly effective for visual political branding
Photographs, Stories and Reels allow candidates to combine policy communication with carefully constructed images of competence, approachability and personal authenticity. A candidate can appear formally in a manifesto infographic and informally in a video showing interactions with traders, students or residents.
Threads supports rapid text-based discussion and reaction
Its Malaysian audience is smaller than those of Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, but it provides a space for short policy arguments, commentary, rebuttals and interaction with politically attentive users. Its influence may therefore extend beyond its direct audience when posts are quoted by journalists, commentators or users on other platforms.
Facebook remains important because of its broad and multigenerational network
Community groups, constituency pages, longer explanations, photographs and livestreams allow political actors to reach families, local associations and voters who have used the platform for many years.
An effective campaign consequently does not upload identical material everywhere. It adapts the same political message to the communication culture of each platform.
Exposure does not automatically determine voting behaviour. It would be academically inaccurate to claim that watching several TikTok videos directly causes a person to vote for a particular party.
Political decisions are also affected by family influence, ethnicity, religion, economic circumstances, party identification, candidate reputation, government performance and local constituency issues. Social media operates within this wider political and social environment.
A major meta-analysis by Boulianne and Theocharis examined 106 survey-based studies containing 965 statistical coefficients. It found an overall positive relationship between young people’s digital-media use and civic or political engagement.
However, it also found evidence of reverse causality: politically interested young people may use digital media more frequently, rather than digital-media exposure alone creating their political interest.
The appropriate conclusion is that social media can strengthen political information-seeking, discussion, expression and mobilisation, but its effects are neither automatic nor uniform.
An exploratory Malaysian survey involving 100 young voters eligible to participate in the six 2023 state elections found that respondents frequently obtained election information through social media, particularly Facebook.
It also reported an association between the frequency of obtaining political information online and participation in online political activities. Because the study was relatively small and conducted as an undergraduate research project, it should not be treated as representative of every Malaysian voter. Nevertheless, it offers useful preliminary evidence of how young Malaysians used social media during a comparable state-election environment.
Malaysian qualitative research has similarly shown that young people’s political participation is not limited to voting or joining political parties. Following political news, discussing public issues and participating in informal political conversations are also meaningful forms of engagement.
Why social media may matter in a close election
The influence of digital campaigning becomes more important when many voters have not made a firm decision. A Vodus Research survey of 437 registered Negeri Sembilan voters, conducted from 9 to 21 July 2026, reported that approximately 30 percent of respondents were still changeable or uncertain about their voting preference. Although 71 percent said they were likely or very likely to vote, only 51 percent placed themselves in the strongest “very likely” category.
The same survey identified the cost of living as one of the three most important issues for 55 percent of respondents, followed by jobs and wages at 34 percent, housing affordability at 26 percent, and corruption and governance at 24 percent. The online sample was post-stratified by constituency-level ethnicity, age and gender, although its size means that subgroup findings must still be interpreted cautiously.
These findings suggest that social-media campaigns will be most persuasive when they address voters’ actual concerns.
A humorous video may obtain views, but voters facing rising living expenses are likely to demand credible explanations of wages, housing, employment and public services. The most effective political content should therefore connect emotional communication with evidence-based policy.
Opportunities for democratic participation
The rise of social media offers several democratic benefits. First, it lowers the cost of obtaining political information. Voters can compare candidates without attending multiple physical events.
Second, it enables direct communication. Young voters can leave comments, raise questions and challenge political claims publicly.
Third, it provides visibility to candidates with limited access to traditional media. A local candidate can use a smartphone to explain constituency problems without depending entirely on television or newspaper coverage.
Fourth, social media can improve electoral mobilisation. Campaigns can remind voters about polling dates, voting procedures, transport arrangements and the location of polling centres.
Finally, it can make state-level politics more understandable. Questions involving local government, land, housing, infrastructure, water supply and public amenities can be explained through maps, short videos and constituency-based examples.
However, these benefits are realised only when political communication is accurate, inclusive and responsible.
The danger of emotional and misleading content
The same platforms that encourage participation can also reward sensationalism. Algorithms often prioritise material that produces strong reactions. Anger, fear, humiliation and identitybased conflict may therefore travel faster than detailed policy explanations.
A 2026 study of 60 publicly accessible TikTok videos circulated during Malaysia’s 15th General Election found recurring patterns in the digital construction of racial and religious threats. These included emotional and musical staging, claims presented as if they were evidence, multiple voices used to legitimise a narrative, and the repetition or translation of content to expand its reach.
The study concluded that TikTok’s features could make longstanding ethnoreligious anxieties appear immediate, familiar and politically urgent.
The lesson for Negeri Sembilan is not that TikTok or social media should be rejected. Rather, political actors and voters must recognise that emotionally powerful content is not necessarily accurate content.
As of 23 July 2026, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had received 16 complaints related to the Negeri Sembilan election campaign. Fourteen concerned telecommunications networks, while two involved fake social-media accounts. The Communications Minister nevertheless warned that online activity commonly intensifies during the final 72 to 96 hours before polling.
Platform enforcement also demonstrates the scale of the integrity challenge. TikTok reported that it removed more than 450,000 videos in Malaysia under its integrity and authenticity policies between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025. The company stated that more than 99 per cent were removed proactively. These are platform-reported figures and are not limited to election material, but they illustrate the broader volume of misinformation, fake engagement and manipulative content requiring moderation.
What political parties should do
Political parties should move beyond measuring success through views, shares and follower counts. High engagement does not necessarily represent voter support, and viral comments are not equivalent to representative public opinion.
Each major campaign promise should be accompanied by four elements: the problem being addressed, the proposed action, the estimated resources required and the implementation period. Candidates should also provide links to full policy documents rather than relying solely on slogans.
Political parties must disclose sponsored content, influencer collaborations and material generated or substantially modified using artificial intelligence. Deepfake videos, cloned voices and fabricated screenshots can cause substantial damage during the short period in which voters are making final decisions.
Candidates should also avoid mobilising support through racial or religious fear. Such strategies may create short-term attention but weaken social trust and democratic stability.
Responsibilities of voters, platforms and the media
Young voters should practise a simple verification routine before sharing political content: identify the original source, check the date, compare the claim with credible reporting and distinguish between evidence and personal opinion.
A video recorded confidently is not automatically factual. Large numbers of likes or views do not prove that a claim is true or that most voters support it.
Social-media companies should strengthen election-information centres, local-language moderation and the labelling of manipulated media. Greater transparency is also needed regarding political influencers, coordinated accounts and the reasons certain political content is recommended.
Newspapers and broadcasters have an equally important responsibility. Rather than merely repeating viral controversies, professional media organisations should explain their context, test their factual accuracy and compare competing policy proposals.
The ballot remains more important than the algorithm
The 2026 Negeri Sembilan election demonstrates that the centre of political communication has shifted. The ceramah has not disappeared, but it now operates alongside the livestream. The manifesto exists alongside the infographic, while the political speech competes with the 30- second video.
For almost 420,000 Negeri Sembilan voters below 40, social media may be the first place where an election issue is encountered, a candidate is evaluated, or a political discussion begins.
Nevertheless, online popularity must not be confused with democratic legitimacy. Algorithms determine what becomes visible on a screen, but voters determine who receives authority through the ballot box.
The central democratic challenge is therefore not whether social media should be used in elections. It is whether technology will be used to improve political understanding or merely to manipulate attention.
Negeri Sembilan’s young voters should be treated not simply as an audience to be entertained, but as citizens entitled to credible policies, verifiable information and respectful political debate.
Afi Roshezry Abu Bakar
Adi Wira Mohd Zin
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Kampar Campus)
