image from http://sgsharemarket.com/home/2011/04/nomination-day-is-on-april-27/SINGAPORE - This year's Singapore General Elections will see a new campaigning rule being put in place. A 'Cooling-off Day' will come into effect 24 hours before polling day, creating a 'campaign silence period' where no campaigning activities will be allowed for all parties.
The rules are further detailed on the Singapore Elections Department website:
Cooling-off Day The eve of Polling Day is designated as Cooling-off Day, a day when election campaigning is prohibited. This 24-hour campaign silence period is to give voters some time to reflect rationally on issues raised during the election before going to the polls. There are some exceptions to the prohibition of campaign activities on Cooling-off Day:
- Party political broadcasts on television;
- Reports in the newspapers, on radio and television relating to election matters;
- Approved posters and banners that were already up, and lawful Internet advertising that was already published before the eve of Polling Day;
- Books previously scheduled for publication;
- The transmission of personal political views by individuals to other individuals, on a non-commercial basis, using the Internet, telephone or electronic means; and
- Such activities or circumstances as may be prescribed by the Minister.
(http://www.elections.gov.sg/elections_parliamentary.html)
Prime Minster Lee Hsien Loong gave the reasons for this new ruling:
Mr Lee said: “I think 24 hours after the last excitement of the election campaign period, the rallies, the door-to-door campaigning, the adrenaline flowing, the clash in the mass media as well as in person, perambulating vans blaring away loud speakers, it’s good to have 24 hours to just calm down, think about it – tomorrow we vote.”
He added that having a cooling-off period will also lessen the risk of public disorder.
“Previously, once in a while, we have had pushing and shoving at election rallies as the crowd gets worked up and doesn’t disperse, but the main thing is to have time for people to think over the issues and to vote in a calm state of mind,” he said.
Mr Lee was asked how this additional 24-hour cooling-off period would apply to the online world of networking and video-sharing sites.
“On the Internet, it’s grey and also the policing is not so straight-forward but even then, in principle we should say today is a quiet day. I cannot control several million videos on youtube but your website, what you’re putting up in your own name, I think that should end the day before the cooling-off day,” he said.
Countries that have imposed a similar period of campaign silence include Australia and Indonesia.
Australia has a three-day black-out of election advertising and Indonesia has a three-day cooling-off before Legislative Elections and a two-day cooling-off before the Presidential election.
(http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1021648/1/.html)In my previous post, I remarked that such an act would be akin to clutching at straws, a last ditch effort to help the ruling party 'win back' some voters who might have been perceived as emotionally swayed at the highly charged rallies organised by the PAP's counterparts in the opposition.
The theory goes something like this --- on the eve of polling day, you attend a highly charged rally organised by an opposition party. It is the day before the General Elections. The candidates are fired up and they want to set you alive with the their closing statements. You return home all pumped up, go to bed and awake the next morning (probably still pumped up) to vote in favour of the opposition.
At the first rally held by the WP in 2011, it was estimated that up to 20,000 people attended the event held at Hougang. My take is that the open fields have already reached its maximum capacity, and any change in attendees would be negligible.
Assuming that 5 separate rallies held by the different opposition parties were to take place on the final day of campaigning, it is estimated that a maximum of 100,000 people will be reached with speeches that are non-aligned with that of the ruling party's.
These rallies are taped by the respective parties and then uploaded onto their organisation websites or youtube, usually on the following day for public viewing.
However, by imposing a Cooling-off Day in order potentially win back these 100,000 rally participants, the PAP might inadvertently be giving the opposition the upper hand.
Rallies are only allowed to be be held up to 2200hrs (10pm). Subsequently, the parties might take some time to edit what was taped and then upload the footage either later that night or on the following day. Final day rallies are vital as candidates deliver their most crucial arguments and seek to end on a high note.
Given the new Cooling-off Day ruling, it is certain that all parties will scramble to upload their latest video footage as soon as possible in order to meet the deadline (this does not apply to personal blogs, personal facebook or twitter accounts). Doing so would give the public one full day to view what took place at the previous night's rally.
Now, if the Cooling-off Day ruling was not imposed, rallies and campaigning would have gone right up to the wire --- 10pm on a Friday. Parties would also rush to put their rally footage on the internet. The public would then only be able to view the recorded footage, but only on polling day itself. However, given that voters are eager to cast their vote and that many would like to beat the queue on polling day, many would want to cast their votes early, resulting in many not being able to review all of the previous night's events and speeches. Thus, the reach and the potential impact of the most recently uploaded rally videos would be relatively limited. Such a situation would favour parties who are able to organise highly charged rallies and send their 100,000 rally attendants to vote on a 'high' in just less than 24hrs post rally.
Perhaps, this was what the ruling party saw coming, leading them to impose a Cooling-off Day.
However, by imposing a Cooling-off Day, the public would be able to get a full day to view all of the previous evening's footage by all the different parties. Popular and relevant speeches (identified by passionate supporters of the opposition parties) would be 'pushed' or forwarded to friends via facebook, twitter and email. Voters will be hungry for last minute bits of information, trawling the internet and keeping their Facebook news feeds current. It would thus be very likely that exponentially more than the 100,000 rally participants would be eyeballing the videos --- videos that are likely to be 'pushed' by passionate supporters of the opposition parties. Instead of 'stabilising' the minds of the 100,000 rally participants, the Cooling-off Day may just do the opposite and expand the videos' reach to more people, convincing them to align with the opposition parties instead.
The Cooling-off Day might have worked in the absence of social media. PM Lee was also asked to comment on the impact of the internet on the Cooling-off Day (see above) and he acknowledged that it is something hard to police.
It is unknown if such a proposed angle was considered before the rule was imposed. That said, only time will tell if a strategically crafted move would turn out to be critically successful or a tactical failure.
Paul Lim is an adjunct faculty member with the Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources (OBHR) discipline at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University; an Academic Associate and an Adjunct Associate with the Centre of Innovation & Enterprise, Republic Polytechnic, Singapore. He teaches courses in Leadership, Organisational Behaviour and Cross Generational Management at the above institutions. A doctoral student with French business school - Grenoble Ecole de Management, he is currently writing his dissertation on the effects of peer mentoring on employee retention in the millennial generation (Gen Y). This article is based on the writer's personal opinion and is not representative of any organisation or persons he may be associated with.
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