Wednesday, 20 October 2010 20:56 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – At least five political parties in Burma have created Facebook accounts and website to canvass for votes, web searches reveal.
Among the 37 registered parties, the National Democratic Force (NDF), Democratic Party (Myanmar), Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), Karen Progressive Party (KPP), and Peace and Diversity Party (PDP), had opened Facebook accounts through which to present party policies and canvass for votes.
“Facebook is widely used. Through one of our fans we can add thousands of party fans in Facebook. So our party is well known because of our Facebook page,” NDF Rangoon Division canvassing committee secretary Dr. Myat Nyan Soe said.
“We’ve had difficulties in launching a face-to-face electoral campaign, so we’re using Facebook to present our policies and answer questions interactively. Our fan page … is intended for the youth,” he said,
The PDP has also created a Facebook fan page and a party website.
The National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide victory in Burma’s last national elections in 1990 was without a website but the detained party general secretary and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said on Monday she would use Twitter after her release from house arrest to communicate with young people, senior NLD member and one of her lawyers, Nyan Win, told Mizzima.
“She wants to know the attitudes and ideas of the younger generation around the world. That’s why she wants to use twitter,” he said.
Suu Kyi had been under house arrest since May 2003 after the “Depayin Massacre”. At the time, social networking sites such as Friendster, Facebook and Twitter had yet to be established.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
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