Kajian Malaysia, Vol. 32, Supp. 2, 2014, 123–147 THE SOCIAL MEDIA ELECTION IN MALAYSIA: THE 13TH GENERAL ELECTION IN 2013 Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani School of International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia Email:
[email protected] The 13th General Election (GE13) of 2013 was historic because the Barisan Nasional (BN) won with a slightly reduced majority compared to the last general election in 2008 and surprisingly lost the popular votes to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) for the first time since 1969. There was a huge swing from the urban and suburban constituencies toward supporting the PR. One of the major contributors to the result was the social media which was once again dominated by the PR, similar to what happened in 2008. Social media is trendy, cheap and easy to access especially for youths who made up half of the voters totalling 13.3 million. Online channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, news portals and blogs are popular and became the avenues for political parties from both BN and PR alike for campaigning and tools for the leaders and candidates to meet the electorates in respective constituencies. The impact was enormous for PR parties which were able to utilise it to their advantages, letting the 2013 general election become competitive and strengthening the democratic process in Malaysia. Thus, this article studies the correlation between the phenomena of social media and democracy. It then explores the conditions and effects of social media in Malaysia. Finally, this article analyses thoroughly the impact of social media in the GE13.