By Imelda Saad | Posted: 14
March 2011 1722 hrs
SINGAPORE: Political parties, candidates and their
election agents will now be able to use a broader range of new
media platforms to conduct election advertising on the
Internet.
The changes follow amendments to the Constitution as well as the
Parliamentary and Presidential Elections Act introduced last
year.
Internet election advertising can now be conducted via the
following: podcasts, videocasts, blogs, micro-blogs (like Twitter),
MMS, photo-sharing platforms (like Flickr), social networking sites
(like Facebook) and electronic media applications like those found
on mobile phones.
Currently, this "positive list" only covers party websites, chat
rooms, discussion forums emails, SMS and hyperlinks.
Apart from this, candidates may also include appeals to forward
their Internet election advertising, for example, through chain
emails.
Previously, they are prohibited from doing so.
Election campaign recordings can also be used, so long as the
recordings are not "dramatised" and published "out of
context".
For example, a video taken at an election rally can be uploaded
onto the Web, without the need to go through the Board of Film
Censors.
All other films, though, must still be submitted to the Board for
approval.
Candidates must declare the new media content they intend to use
within 12 hours after the start of the campaign period.
This is to ensure candidates are "transparent and accountable" to
the public on the Internet and telecommunications platforms they
use for election advertising.
Declarations can be made on prescribed forms or online via the
Elections Department's websites.
Thereafter, any other new platforms have to be declared in advance
before advertising can be published.
Individual Singaporeans can participate in Internet election
advertising without declaring their particulars.
Activities at the Speaker's Corner - Singapore's version of
London's Hyde Park - will be controlled during campaigning
period.
The space was freed up in 2008, allowing Singaporeans to speak
without a permit.
Authorities said "if permits are not required at the Speaker's
Corner, this could become an alternative venue bypassing the
election rally permit regime".
So permits will be required for all activities there during the
campaigning period, regardless of whether or not the space is
designated as an election site.
Other changes are:
an election agent must fill up two additional forms when
consolidating the expenses of candidates within a Group
Representation Constituency;
workers who are Singapore PRs or work pass holders can now carry
out manual work such as putting up election posters and setting up
physical facilities such as rally sites; and
items like soft toys, key chains, tissue packets and pins can now
be distributed without political parties or candidates declaring
their particulars to the Elections Department.
- AFP
