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Candidates battling for votes on social media
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People fill in forms and provide their identity cards for copying at a Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) booth at Kuningan City Mall in South Jakarta on Thursday. Teman Ahok has opened booths at 15 malls to garner public support for Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s independent candidacy in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election. (JP/Callistasia Anggun Wijaya)
T
he official campaign period in the Jakarta gubernatorial election has not even started, yet political campaigns, and mudslinging, among supporters of each of the candidates have been simmering on social media, where the real battle for the capital’s top spot is now taking place.
Teman Ahok, a volunteer group supporting incumbent Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, has set up a social media team, whose members have been working around the clock to promote the frontrunner candidate on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“We try to counter inaccurate news reports about Pak Ahok by presenting the data and facts that we have collected,” the group’s spokesman, Singgih Widyastomo, told The Jakarta Post at his office in South Jakarta. Every day, he said, the team discusses issues they will raise on social media.
But Teman Ahok is not the only one working behind the keyboards to beat the drum for Ahok and defend him from attacks.
The combative governor, too, has an army of militant online supporters, some of whom are considered “celebs” with thousands of online followers. They include Addie MS, who has 1.02 million Twitter followers, and writer Guntur Romli, with 92,000 Twitter followers.
Soon after the pairs of Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno and Agus Harimurti-Sylviana Murnir registered at the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD Jakarta) to challenge Ahok, social media accounts claiming to support him started to post memes ridiculing their candidate’s rivals.
Having announced his gubernatorial bid much earlier and supported by militant social media activists, Ahok seems to have the upper hand in the battle for the digital realm’s vote, which many say could decide the election’s outcome.
The election of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as Jakarta governor in the 2012 election and as president in the 2014 election, for instance, has been attributed to the ability of his social media-savvy campaign team to collect netizens’ support.
Jakarta, dubbed by some as the social media capital of the world, has the most active Twitter users, according to a 2012 study. The city also has more than 11.6 million Facebook users, slightly less than Bangkok with 12.8 million users, according to social media monitoring site brand24.co.id.
Anies’ camp is aware of Ahok’s strength on social media and has been preparing their own social media troops to put up a good fight.
“We just got 200 volunteers. I believe it will reach thousands ahead of the election,” Anthony Leong, the coordinator of Anies-Sandiaga social media campaigners, told the Post. Anies-Sandiaga’s digital volunteers, known as Insider members, will be trained every week, said Leong, who works for a digital marketing company and claims to work pro-bono for the pair.
In addition to Insider members, influential social media users who have also endorsed Anies are stand-up comedian Pandji Pragiwaksono and motivator Rene Suhardono.
Agus and Sylviana, who turned up late to the election, may need more time to develop their social-media strategy. Their only edge on social media today is Agus’ Instagram account, @agusyudhoyono, which has 1.5 million followers, while his wife, celebrity Annisa Pohan, has 1.8 million followers on her instagram account @annisayudhoyono.
His strongest influencer could be his own mother, former first lady Ani Yudhoyono, who is a popular Instagrammer with 4.9 million followers.
Analysts and Agus’ supporters say that as the youngest and perhaps most charming candidate, Agus, who just set up the Agus Fans Club, could win the support of female voters.
