DOHA: Candidates trying their luck in this year’s Central Municipal Council (CMC) election, due next month, are increasingly using social media for canvassing.
This is because the new media is now much more popular in Qatar than it was in 2011, when the last CMC poll was held.
A survey conducted by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology last December shows that Qataris are more aware of new smartphone applications than non-Qataris.
Some 78 percent of Qatari social media users use WhatsApp. Twitter is also popular among them, while Facebook remains the preference of mostly non-Qataris.
The popularity of social media in recent times in the Qatari community has led many sitting members of the CMC who are seeking re-election to rely increasingly on these channels of communication for campaigning.
Sheikha Al Jefairi, the lone woman CMC member, who is contesting from ward number 8 (Old Airport, Ras Abu Aboud, Old Ghanem and Najma), has, for example, deployed two teams to conduct her election campaign on the social media, one on Twitter alone.
However, used to one-way interaction with voters in conventional electioneering, many candidates are realising to their shock that the social media can be a double-edged sword.
For example, some tweeters have poked fun at some CMC candidates for “talking boastfully” about development projects either completed in their constituencies or lined up for execution.
“Come on! Be realistic and come up with some innovative programme of your own. Those development projects (you are talking about) are the government’s brainchild,” a tweeter was quoted as saying sarcastically by local Arabic daily Al Raya yesterday.
Many voters are reacting to “boastful sloganeering” by some candidates and reminding them that they have no hand in the infrastructure development works they are talking of in their respective wards.
Some candidates are using WhatsApp in their canvassing while others are relying on YouTube and uploading patriotic songs with video clips, among other things.
“However, more candidates are using their Twitter accounts for canvassing, followed by WhatsApp,” the daily said.
A common theme of the election manifestos of most sitting members in the fray is development work in their respective constituencies.
However, such canvassing seems to be turning into a cause for embarrassment for many contestants.
THE PENINSULA
