Twitter and Facebook Make Afghan Election Debut

Source: AFP

KABUL — Afghans may be desperately poor, largely illiterate and without electricity, but that does not stop would-be presidents campaigning in cyber space on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Mimicking tactics made famous by US President Barack Obama, one of the top contenders to rule Afghanistan "tweets" on hot micro-blogging service Twitter and has a flashy website where supporters can make donations.

Of 41 presidential candidates standing on August 20, some trumpet policies on social networking site Facebook, while video-sharing website YouTube carries clips of campaign rallies from across the war-scarred nation.

As only 10 percent of the estimated population of 26 to 30 million have access to electricity -- let alone a computer with Internet access -- it may seem like a waste of resources.

But Luke Cholerton-Bozier, who heads London-based digital media agency Red Narrative, says that even in a country where at best five percent of people have Internet access, that still means 1.5 million potential voters.

(snip)

Karzai, who is tipped to win, does however dominate television coverage -- a priority in a country were 70 percent of people cannot read, his campaign spokesman Waheed Omer said.

"The Internet and Twitter and YouTube and Facebook and all these things, they have a limited audience here in Afghanistan," Omer said.

"I don't see how using Twitter or using Facebook for example could get anyone a substantial number of votes or a substantial edge in the voting... the Internet is a new thing in Afghanistan."

more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ir_Smei-C-opdJsMr-xC-ZYAqg0g

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IMO, the Twitter and Facebook set-ups are as much for the West(maybe more so) than for the Afghanis. Karzai already has this rigged, I wonder what reaction the people of Afghanistan will have when it is made 'official'.