SG General Elections heats up on social media
Millions of Singaporeans will go to polls on September 11 to decide the country’s next government. With the polls only a few days away, the Singapore General Election (#GE2015) has been a hot topic in the country with people talking about it on social media.
Since the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee report was released on 24 July and up to 31 August, there has been a 300 per cent increase in elections-related conversation on Twitter (compared to the previous 39-day period from 14 June to 23 July).
About 560,000 people in Singapore had 3.6 million interactions related to the election from 24 July to 28 August on Facebook. This represents 16 per cent of the 3.5 monthly active people on Facebook in Singapore.
In the last week of August, there have been over 52,000 elections-related conversations on Twitter with a spike in Tweets on 25 August when Parliament was dissolved and the writ of election issued.
The Workers’ Party topped the list in the most mentioned political parties on Twitter in the last week of August. Twitter’s data also highlighted that while the Workers’ Party is 1.4 times more widely discussed than the People’s Action Party right now, the campaigning period has yet to start which is when political parties can connect directly with voters. The ranking of most mentioned political parties on Twitter is as follows:
1. Workers’ Party
2. People’s Action Party
3. The Reform Party
4. Singapore Democratic Party
5. National Solidarity Party
6. Singaporeans First Party
7. Democratic Progressive Party
8. Singapore Democratic Alliance
9. Singapore People’s Party
10. People’s Power Party
Facebook data highlights that Lee Kuan Yew lead the top topics in Singapore again from July 24 to August 28. He was also one of the most mentioned politician on Twitter.
The other election related hot topics on Facebook include CPF / retirement, education, transport, cost of living, housing, Temasek-GIC, MediShield Life, Amos Yee and single mums ranked in this order.
The top demographic of people engaging with General Elections on Facebook are in this order: women aged 35-44, women aged 45-54, women aged 25-34, men aged 35-44 and women aged 65 and above.
Lee Hsien Loong is the most widely discussed party leader on Twitter with eight times more mentions than Low Thia Khiang. Newcomer He Ting Ru from the Workers’ Party has more mentions on Twitter than veterans Ken Jeyaretnam, Chee Soon Juan and Sylvia Lim, reflecting her appeal to younger voters. The other most mentioned politicians on Twitter are Chiam See Tong, Lina Chiam and Tan Jee Say.
“The majority of our users in Singapore are actively seeking information and different views about #GE2015 so that they can make an informed decision on who to vote for. Twitter enables Singaporeans to get real-time election updates and feel the pulse of the election through authentic connections between politicians and voters, through live Tweets and now, for the first-time, even live video broadcasts via Periscope,” said Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s Vice President of Media, Asia Pacific and Middle East.
