The speakers at the “ICT and Political Parties: Can Swedish Democracy Learn from Asia?” talk at International IDEA’s headquarters in Stockholm on 18 September 2006, concluded that both Sweden and Asia could learn from each other in using the internet effectively to shape the opinions and outcome of elections.

Premesh Chandran, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Malaysiakini.com, an independent Malaysian news organization and Southeast Asian Centre for E-media, said while Asian political parties generally had a more prominent presence on the net, they could be more refined in the way they conduct elections.

“Politics in Asia can be brutal in many ways. You can feel and see that there is an election going on. However, I had no idea that it was Election Day here when I arrived in Stockholm, it was so calm”, Chandran said at the talk, which was held a day after the Swedish elections.

He also provided valuable insight into the technology behind the political parties’ online presence, as well as strategies adopted to get their messages across. The number of visitors, the speed the party responds to the issues and how fast the content is massed on are important factors that make a good political party Web site.

“It is no longer about how many hits the site gets, it is about the power of communications – the reach, the speed and the spread”, he told participants from IDEA, the Stockholm diplomat corps, and representatives from non-governmental agencies, universities, and information technology industry.

Chandran presented an analysis of governmental and opposition party Web sites in Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. He said political parties in Asia are generally moving towards cutting edge technologies, such as open-source technologies, like RSS, SMS news, blogging, multimedia and live web casting of events and speeches, all of which have a part to play in promoting the respective party’s agenda.

Bo Krogvig, President of the European Association of Political Consultants, pointed out that most Swedish political party Web sites still are being used as a “library for leaflets” and to present their arguments, programmes and speeches.

He said the media played a bigger role in the Swedish elections this time.

“Aftonbladet and Lunarstorm created a site for youngsters in Sweden and invited party leaders, young people and the site members for an enormous political discussion through out spring and summer. There was also Q&A with party leaders and young people on issues that they were interested in”.

Krogvig also pointed out that the popular online party tests, where one could test one’s political orientation, allowed people to make up their minds more easily based on the outcome of the assessment.

He added that activists and non-governmental organizations used the internet to influence parties and politicians by circulating petitions on the net on various issues where visitors could sign online and then send to Member of Parliaments and elected representatives.

Roger Hällhag, head of IDEA’s political parties programme presented an analysis from a recent study of political parties in developing democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, South Asia, Africa and the Andean region.

“In Central and Eastern Europe, at least 80 percent have Web sites and in fact many of them prefer using their Web sites to print paper,” he said.

The studies showed that 89 percent of political parties in South Asia, excluding India, were online, however, traditional communications is still important, therefore 72 percent still print their information on paper. Despite being at the forefront of the software revolution, India is still behind when it came to web use by political parties, with only 19 percent online. (For more information, see chart below)

“Africa has the lowest use of Web sites. However, it is still a remarkable 41 percent of parties that maintain Web sites, many of whom have recently formed parties with very slim resources”, Hällhag added.

He also referred to an article in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper in Sweden that quoted a member of the Moderate Party as saying that the internet was only a marginal feature in the election.

“This is the general attitude of all Swedish parties. Internet campaigning probably did not have a significant impact on the elections, however ICT gained some significance because of another reason – intrusion into the Social Democrats intranet system by a Liberal party member,” Hällhag concluded.

Political Parties and their communications with members: Percentage of Parties using a Web site, electronic correspondence and printed paper.

Regions (Parties/Countries)	Web site %	Electronic Correspondence To/From Members %	Printed Party Newspaper %
Central & Eastern Europe (44/10)	80	50 / 43	41
South Asia (18/4) + India (26/1)	89 19	44 / 55 15 / 27	72 58
Africa (41/12)	41	34 / 49	39
Andes (32/4)	59	44 / 41	34

Source: International IDEA
Resource and Dialogue with Political Parties