PNP presents candidates for virtual voters

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Friday | August 10, 2007

Ross Sheil and Kerry-Ann Bercher, Gleaner Online Reporters

This general election campaign has already seen politicians attempting, sometimes struggling, to demonstrate familiarity with the Internet Generation.

One politician to be caught 'e-unawares' is Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education and Youth and People's National Party (PNP) incumbent for the South East St. Andrew constituency.

The PNP, unknown to Mrs. Henry-Wilson, launched web pages for their candidates on social-networking websites MySpace.com and Hi5.com and the video-sharing site YouTube.com. Her Hi5 page - which has been customised using the free online tool Pimp-My-Profile.com - has a seductive background of hearts, inviting visitors to 'become Maxine's first friend!'

Such virtual friends might be valuable should they become actual PNP voters on election day, August 27, in a hotly contested seat against the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Joan Gordon-Webley.

"Old methods of campaigning don't always work and, in this day and age, for example, YouTube and MySpace are ways we can use," said an approving Education Minister.

According to PNP webmaster, David White, the pages were launched in response to a survey of young people, which recommended using social networking websites to grab potential voters. However, as most of the pages are inactive, Mr. White and his staff may first have to educate candidates before they can win over voters online.

Other candidates

In addition to Mrs. Henry-Wilson, other candidates' profiles have been customised with Peter Bunting, candidate for Central Manchester, and Phillip Paulwell, candidate for East Kingston and Port Royal, also 'pimped' on their respective Hi5 and MySpace pages.

Mr. Bunting's page has a background of roses while Mr. Paulwell, or whoever launched the Technology Minister's page, chose to display the motto: "It takes more than a man to be in the military. And more than a woman to love that man."

Previously caught unawares by social-networking technology, the most popular politicians' pages on Hi5 actually belong to PNP president Portia Simpson Miller and her predecessors, former Prime Ministers P.J. Patterson and Edward Seaga, whose pages were posted by pranksters.

Judging by the number of 'friends' and duration of their Hi5 pages, the youth wings of the PNP and JLP are more familiar with social-networking sites - but this is not surprising since it has been the demand from young users that has driven the popularity of the technology.

PNP Youth Organisation (PNPYO) president Andrew Okola seems to be well ahead with 353 Hi5 friends, a photograph of himself with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and testimony from female users that might encourage him to run for office next election. The page belonging to Generation 2000 (G2K), the young professional arm of the JLP, has 141 friends.

The JLP has also established its own channel on YouTube.

ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com Story taken from the blog at JamaicaElections.com, which contains the webpages mentioned above and further coverage of the 2007 election campaign.