JOHOR BAHRU: As campaigning for the Pulai and Simpang Jeram by-elections entered its seventh day today, candidates are still seen as comfortable with the traditional approach of going to the grounds to woo voters in small groups.
Nevertheless, they are also seizing the opportunity to use social media to reach out to voters, either to inform people of their campaign schedules or convey their visions and missions.
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate for the Pulai parliamentary seat, Suhaizan Kaiat, mostly uses his Facebook page ‘Suhaizan Kayat’ and TikTok account @suhaizan_kayat, which have 48,000 followers and 6,543 followers respectively, to publicise his campaign programmes.
His opponent Zulkifli Jaafar of Perikatan Nasional (PN), who has 5,300 followers on Facebook and 1,461 followers on TikTok, also regularly uses the two platforms to disseminate messages.
For Universiti Teknologi Mara liberal communication senior lecturer Dr A. Aziz Azizam, it is inevitable for political parties to turn to social media as it is a cheaper and more efficient way of campaigning to reach targeted groups.
“However, (social) media platforms are just tools. People give more attention to the substance of their messages. The content on any subject must be convincing, for that is what people are looking for when deciding which party to choose,” he told Bernama when contacted today.
According to him, the main group of social media users is aged 18 to 40, but there is no evidence that the older group aged 41 and above is not influenced by information on social media.
He said the strength of an issue would serve as a magnet to attract people to follow campaign developments on social media.
Political analyst Dr Mohammad Tawfik Yaakub feels that the social media platform is a more contemporary way of campaigning in elections and has a wider reach.
He said PN, for example, uses its machinery for online campaigning in the by-elections, just as it had done in the recent six state elections. However, he believes this would not affect PH's chances to win in Pulai.
“This is because there is a high percentage of non-Malay voters in the Pulai parliamentary constituency; on the whole, social media could not yet shake the political stance of non-Malays,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor at the Media and Strategic Communication Faculty of Oklahoma State University in the United States, said the messages conveyed by candidates on social media included those touching on approachable leaders, Islamic rhetoric, transformation and the economy.
”Judging from the activeness of candidates on social media, the probability to influence is quite low but it is not impossible for voters to be influenced through posts made by other users. In fact, campaigning could be seen through the accounts of parties and other users,” said Dr Nuurrianti.
According to a study by US-based proxy provider ProxyRack, Malaysia ranks second in the world, together with the Philippines, in the list of countries which utilised social media platforms the most.
The Pulai constituency has 166,653 voters, with those in the 21-29 age comprising the biggest group at 21.05 per cent, followed by the 30-39 age group (20.54 per cent) and those aged 40 to 49 (19.36 per cent).
The Simpang Jeram state seat has 40,379 voters, with those in the 30-39 age group comprising the biggest group at 23.1 per cent, followed by those in the 21-29 age group (22.6 per cent) and those aged 40 to 49 (17.62 per cent).
Polling for both by-elections has been set for Sept 9, with early voting on Sept 5. -Bernama