r / By R a n g a m i n i W e r a w a t t a I /)ii <’( t<>r/EConsultants

y I I ’olilies ran lx* inlri preicd as (lie use of cyberspace or (lie Cinternet for political activities. This includes journalism, fundraising, blogging, volunteer recruitment, and organisation building. The term, cyber politics, came into being during the cam­ paign carried out by Howard Dean, who contested the 2004 Presidential nomina­ tion from the Democratic Party of the From Poster to Post I IN Mel'ore the contest, Howard Dean had not been so well known. However, by lining cyberspace to carry out his cam­ Computer literacy rate hy sector and province Computer literacy rate be province in The other most important factor is its paign, he managed to attract the atten- 2W6/07, 2009 and 21114 impact. The social media can reach a | I Ion of many Americans and become a Compiler Incnn-v rate C"*) very large audience. According to the , < • front runner in the race. This encouraged 2006*07 2014 Telecommunication Regulatory > i others to run their political campaigns in Commission, there are over 22 million cyberspace. Sri Lanka 16 1 21)3 25.1 mobile phone users in Sri Lanka as at >' C en tral Sri Lanka has experienced a lot of Sprier Sabaragamuwa r December 2014. According to Census and' cyber politics lately and the Presidential Urban 25 1 31J 34 6 Statistics Department by 2014, 25.1% of Election 2015 and the General Election Rural 15.1 193 23.K the Sri Lankan population are computer 2015 saw the peak of cyber politics in Sri literates. A breakdown and a comparison Lfttnte 0 4 3 IMA 6 3 l.nnlwi Every politician in Sri Lanka over 2006, 2009 and 2014 years of the com? i m PrvrlMf tiaen (be Intel net and uncial media for I I Uva S o u th e rn puter literacy are given below (See table) or her campaign and many have allocated Wevtwn 212 277 14 1 According to the figure above, there huge budgets for this particular purpose, Ccnttnl MX IXO 24 3 are over 5.5 million computer literates During the Presidential Election 2015, Southern 15 ft 198 254 scattered across the country. Distribution both main candidates Mahinda Northern NLA. N.A. J7.5 of Computer Literates according to TJJ Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena jade Provinces, ranges from 15% to 34% an$|? Eastern 11.4 12.9 15.9 N o rth e rn use of social media and the Internet for North Central this shows that there is a considerable Mirth Western 126 165 22.6 electioneering. In fact, one of the reasons amount of computer literates in each Mirth Central 8,9 14 S 153 for Maithripala Sirisena’s victory was his province. This shows that the target audi­ effective cyber political campaign. When Uva 9.9 14.7 17.1 North Western ence and the reach of cyber politics are the Election Commissioner restricted Sabarsgairauvs 123 191 226 not limited to Colombo and to its sub­ campaigning through traditional media 2006/07 •mttmm 2009 ***#»*« 2014 urbs. such as television, radio, newspapers, N .A . - not available Source: Department of Census and Statistics, 2014 However, only 10% of the Sri Lankan public meetings and posters politicians population has access to internet. This creates a barrier for turned to social media. President cyber politics. Out Percentage distribution of Internet and E-mail Sirisena, thorough his social media cam­ of the 22 million Facebook Pages Stats in Sri Lanka paign, managed to reach out to intellectu­ using household population (aged 5 - 69 years) by sector people in Sri Lanka, and province - 2014 Total Fans Rating als and the youth who voted for him. only 2.2 million ;t. ? 1 |?Jff Maithripala Sirisena When the election results were analysed, have access to inter­ 740 306 9 S ttU rf and Household Poptilaifort (age 5*69) it was clear that voters in urban areas net. The numbers■; 7 P ro *kite were in favour of President Sirisena. Internet (%) E-mail (%) and percentages of 2 Mahinda Rajapakse 7 1 5 0 1 7 2 His social media campaign was Sri l a nka 103 83 the Internet pene-, * designed in such a way that the intellect See tor tration of Sri Lanka was fed information about his campaign Urban 183 153 from Department of Namal Rajapaksa 595 398 1 exposing his opponent. According to the Rnral 9.0 7 3 Census and theory of the strength of weak ties, Estate 18 . 1.7 Statistics are showft m Rajitha Senaratne social media has a ripple effect on the P rm im e below (See table) 357 284 5s)•».e message. W estern 175 (4 9 With the latest , During the Presidential Election 2015, Centra) 8 9 70 developments in Sr| © Ranil Wickremesinghe 3 1 6 3 3 0 6 the civil movements as well as their S tw h e rn 7.7 17 Lanka, such as the j activism was taken to a new level. They N orthern 11.2 . 83 government signing § 1 Ranjan Ramanayake 306 389 (6 played a key role in the victory of Eastern 6 8 5 4 a MoU with Google \ President Sirisena. %(ttth Western 8J ' 62 to provide Wi-Fi: j Social media has become a very pow­ W&fi h Central 4J 2.8 over ‘internet bal­ * 7 UPFA - A Brighter Future 289 832 4 ) erful tool today and more and more politi­ 3 7 loons’, the internet •A..' --s ' Uva 4.5 cians use it in their campaigns. It has natewmifnttwtt 5.4 4 1. penetration of Sri j /• • Lanka will increase 8 f f| Sajith Premadasa 282 949 16 J also become a business tool and money spinner. There are many companies that soon. Therefore, provide the services of designing and posters or hand bills and no sound pollu­ cyber politics can be mainstreamed and ; Sujeewa Senasinghe 262 052 7 implementing social media campaigns tion. It can be very cost effective too as the political sector in Sri Lanka will ha’ e for candidates who were contesting the the social networking sites are freely a positive facelift. general election 2015. available of anyone. With the above said constraint se j 10 W United National Party 241 552 7 It is very important to understand the Cyber politics is secure and peaceful aside, social media has still proven rs positive side of this trend. Cyber politics also. It is free from any violence and prowess and effectiveness at the r cently; Source: www.socialbakers.com, 2015 can be considered an eco friendly green there won’t be any security risks for concluded parliamentary polls a ,id the j campaign as there are no polythene, no politicians during online campaigns. Ja. 08 presidential election. L J \