Dubai: The electorate is keeping an eye on internet trends before casting their final vote for the Federal National Council’s (FNC) elections on Saturday. This is because social media has become a prominent promotional tool to sway undecided voters.
With scores of candidates to choose from, Emiratis have taken up social media to promote their favourite candidates, particularly by circulating the manifestos, logos and candidates’ registration numbers on WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. The popularity of such social media tools has not been limited to candidates running in the more tech-savvy emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but also extends to the rural areas of Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain, enabling voters to connect with the candidates.
“Its hard to remember all the details, but my social media accounts have certainly been more active as the election date approaches. Many candidates from Fujairah and the Northern Emirates have been promoting themselves on Twitter, and this sort of communication, I feel, has been more effective than the traditional media of newspapers and banners, since that gives me a way to connect to my local community,” explained Abdul Rahman Hussain, 38, from Ras Al Khaimah.
Hussain is one of the many Emiratis whose families decided to uproot themselves into urban life, and as the electoral college has expanded this year by 66 per cent to 224,000, with the majority of people under 40, the surge in social media has been playing a key factor in promoting candidates in the FNC’s third elections. Simultaneously, the government has also played a role in encouraging people to vote with its series of election seminars that were rolled out in August across the UAE to raise awareness on the regulatory and legal aspects of the electoral process.
However, despite efforts made by both parties, some Emiratis feel that several candidates trending on social media did not take the task to heart, as some of the manifestos in circulation on social networking sites have not taken the electoral process as seriously as expected.
“Authorities have educated everyone a lot these last few months on the importance of carrying out their civic duty by voting. But I feel candidates should have taken [the process] more seriously when they decided to run. The type of information available has been a bit weak, but we can take it as a learning curve and improve the content in the next elections,” said Mohammad Al Bastaki, from Dubai.
With two days remaining before the ballot, voters may have turned to social networking sites to promote their preferred candidates. However, when the moment to vote arrives, few may be swayed by candidates’ campaigns as people’s support is mainly influenced by personal relationships formed with family members and friends of those running in the election.
