TAKING advantage of online market growth, the
Commission on Elections yesterday launched the Philippines’
first socio-political website that would allow presidential
candidates and voters to interact through its social networking
tools like blogs, chat and multimedia portals.
The website called politicalarena.com seeks
to provide a forum for candidates and voters to communicate. The
web, according to Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, was a logical
platform to connect the presidential hopefuls with their future
constituency.
"Politicalarena.com represents a significant
contribution to the creation of an informed electorate by making
the candidates’ profiles and platforms available on the
internet. This was made possible only by partnering with a
non-partisan, highly experienced, and respected technology
provider such as 88DB.com," Jimenez said.
Comelec had envisioned the site as early as
2007 in recognition of the growing online trend in the
Philippines. US President Barack Obama’s success in his online
campaign last year cemented the idea of a website dedicated to
candidates, or an online Plaza Miranda.
Racquel Cagurangan, general manager of
politicalarena.com, said she sees 5,000 users visiting the site
daily as election day draws near, with the ultimate target being
the 20 million local internet users and 30 million overseas
Filipino workers.
Cagurangan affirmed their commitment to
ensuring honest and clean 2010 elections. She said the website
gives voters time to digest and analyze information disseminated
by the candidates themselves, their vision, platform and views
on issues.
"The technical complexities of this idea
slowed down the actual progress of the project. We knew that we
needed to find an experienced and impartial technology partner
that could create a stable site that would encourage politicians
to be more forthcoming with their plans, and proactive with
their engagement with the electorate," Cagurangan said.
The website is divided into 11 sections:
Home, Candidates, Issues, News, Videos, Photos, Calendar,
Announcements, Election 101, Forum, and About Us.
At present, politicalarena.com perceives as
many as 20 viable candidates for 2010. But Jimenez said he
expects this number to be pared down to six or four presidential
contenders by next year.
Each perceived presidential candidate is
provided a web page with a standard layout to ensure that the
focus of each page is on issues that matter most to voters. The
candidates have personal content management systems to ensure
the integrity of their information. Voters can create user
accounts to provide support, compare political stands, and
engage the politicians online. –Myla Iglesias
