In a bid to lure votes and increase their exposure, presidential candidates in Tunisia are taking their campaigns to the pages of popular social networking website Facebook.
At least two candidates, Mohamed Bouchiha of the People's Unity Party (PUP) and Ahmed Nejib Chebbi of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), have created their own pages on the website to campaign in the October 2009 elections.
"The use of these new communication tools", said Adel Kadri, head of the political training committee in the People's Unity Party, "along with the 'Progress for All' slogan, was the primary reason behind the good results we achieved in the previous elections, which witnessed for the first time in the history of the nascent Tunisian democracy the exceeding of the 3 % mark in the number of votes given to an opposition candidate."
Using Facebook is considered a novelty in the Tunisian political arena. While candidates have employed phone text messaging and their own websites to campaign, the popular social network was never before used as a platform for presidential elections.
Although the PUP and the PDP were the first to formally integrate Facebook into their campaigns, supporters of current President Zein El Abidine Ben Ali have created their own group on Facebook to advocate for another term. Ettajdid movement is also planning to start a page on the website to promote their candidate Ahmed Ibrahim.
"I think that all the available modern means of communication will be used to get our message across to the public," said Sofiene Chourabi, a journalist from the Ettajdid’s Tarik Jadid newspaper.
Chebbi, who is running despite being disqualified by a recent electoral law change, said he first created his own website to campaign, "but it was blocked by the censorship," he said. He then turned to Facebook, "where the censorship is not tight. It's also an interactive website". His party has also sent 11,000 text messages to voters so far.
Presidential candidates receive state support to promote their agenda. Each gets about 200,000 dinars plus free (but limited) time on the state-owned media institutions.
Internet campaigning may be less costly, but experts and observers believe it will not be as effective as traditional media.
Moez Zayoud, a professor of media in the Institute of Journalism and News Sciences, downplayed the effect Facebook campaigning will have on voter turnout.
"The number of Tunisian subscribers in this website up to last week didn't exceed 130,000 people. Most of those are young people who joined the website for other goals other than political goals. In addition, the majority of Tunisians don't have computers or internet subscriptions, especially the people of rural areas who strongly take part in voting."
However Zayoud said that over time, "people will recognize the importance of this website and the other websites for political and media promotion".
Tarek ben Mahmoud, a student, saw Facebook campaigning as "interesting and new".
"However", he said, "you have to take a quick look on the dialogues exchanged between Tunisians to understand that the issue of next election doesn't interest them at all, as if it will be held in another country other Tunisia."
Fellow student Bouthaina ben Amor said that Facebook could be a good option for the Tunisian opposition "to promote themselves in the virtual world after they failed to do so in the real world".
