The chairman of Singapore People’s Party (SPP) Jose Raymond took to his Facebook on Monday (29 June) to share his views about the online campaigning for the upcoming General Election (GE).
“The battle for the hearts and minds will be fought online and the internet knows no constituency boundaries,” Mr Raymond wrote.
The SPP chairman asserted that whether the online support will translate into votes, the people can only discover after the voting ends.
For the upcoming GE, Mr Raymond will be contesting at Potong Pasir SMC.
In his post, he also shared an article published by Channel 8 which had featured his views as part of the news clip.
“You will have a lot more ability to communicate with the people directly, which is the magic of social media and online spaces. It is boundaryless, and even reach out to the wide audience, but whether it translate into vote in the ends, we will see after election days,” said Mr Raymond in the video clip.
During an interview on Yahoo Singapore’s On The Mic podcast, Mr Raymond also pointed out that the effectiveness of online campaigning could be gauged in this year’s election although it is still “unknown” whether the online platform “fairly reflects the sentiments on the ground.”
He was asked to share his take on the impact of social media in Singapore’s political scene.
Mr Raymond reasoned that the rallies and the use of mainstream media could affect how the people ended up voting on the ground.
“But this time around could well be one of the first times in history that will be able to gauge how effective is the online space for campaigning because the end results will probably be a recognition of whether or not your online content or your online strategy have worked,” he noted.
Sharing his digital campaign plans, Mr Raymond highlighted that he will be using a combination of online content and online broadcast, which is called electoral online blitzkrieg, along with on-the-ground outreach in accordance to the campaigning guidelines.
Yesterday (28 June), the SPP had announced its GE’s manifesto online via Zoom. With the tagline “A Better Tomorrow”, the Party’s manifesto is prefaced and built upon the three guiding principles – “Accountability. Commitment. Empathy.”
The issues outlined in the manifesto included reducing the voting age from 21 to 18, calling ‘no’ to further increase of GST, and combating the climate emergency.
