A new internet site that aims to create "online hustings" ahead of
May's Holyrood elections is set to launch next week. The website,
www.holyrood2007.org, provides an opportunity for candidates and
citizens to use new technologies to engage in elections.
The academic research project between the universities of Edinburgh
and Geneva aims to map and measure the way that parties, candidates and
citizens use new technologies to engage in elections.
Navraj Singh Ghaleigh, who is the project leader for the site, which
will go live on March 19, said: "It's recreating the circumstances of
competitive politics online. That's one thing that's missing online. In
real life, you have hustings and other such events in which candidates
can thrash it out face to face, but there aren't that many of them and
the people that that appeals to are probably relatively limited.
"What we're doing is trying to create an online hustings so that
citizens who are online, which is more than half of Scottish citizens,
can compare their candidates, what they have to say for themselves and
how they compare up against each other."
Every candidate for the upcoming Scottish Parliament election will
have a candidate profile, where they will have the ability to post
their views in the election, allowing voters to compare candidates.
"There's no other space online where you can do that, where you
compare the views of what people say, and if you don't like what a
candidate for the Conservative Party's got to say, you can email her or
you can respond to her blog. You can reply to them, and you can get a
conversation going with candidates and between candidates in a way that
currently doesn't happen.
"That's what we are interested in - do new technologies allow
citizens to have a more genuine relationship with their candidates. Can
they ask them difficult questions, will candidates respond, how do they
respond?
"A lot of the questions about democracy today are about falling
turnout, that's a real concern. We're actually looking at a slightly
different issue, we're not looking at the quantity of democracy, as
such, but rather the quality. We're trying to get people involved in a
richer engagement with their candidates."
The website also has a facility to allow voters to answer around 35
questions on their political views and how important they feel they
are, and will then be able to compare that to the views of the
political parties, and to candidates.
"All the parties are interested and keen to be involved, I think
they all see the value proposition. I think they're all excited about
the opportunity to get their view out in a relatively simple way. They
like the fact there are no complicated links on the site, it looks less
like a website and more like a touchpad."
"One of the buzzwords of the project is political equalisation. Is
the internet a tool for political equalisation, does it reduce the
barriers to entry to the political process to such an extent that
volume of party workers or volume of money is less important than
quality of ideas? It's terrifically interesting to see how people who
lack party machines behind them can deploy new technologies to their
advantage, but it also has terrific opportunities for established
parties to deploy new technologies."
"Candidates are given the opportunity to justify the choices that
they made in the questionnaire, say I'm pro or anti Trident for the
following reasons. The candidates have their flyers they give out, but
how much can you say on that? They must feel frustrated that they don't
really have the opportunity to give a fuller version of what they
believe in. This gives them a fuller chance to do that.
"We're hoping that it enriches the electoral process from the
candidates' perspective because they have more opportunities to speak
and to speak in a more detailed and substantive way and hopefully, from
the citizens' perspective, it's a satisfying process because they get
to make comparisons between candidates and make their choice, when they
ultimately make their choice, in a more informed basis."
The site also has areas which explain the electoral process and ballot papers, and will also contain a daily poll.
Candidates or agents interested in getting involved should contact Navraj Singh Ghaleigh at
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