Political Campaign on-line: analysis of the candidates’ strategies to the 2009 parliamentary elections

Since the mid nineties, in several countries, political parties have been focusing on their online presence, specifically in the use of the internet in their election campaigns. The internet offers many advantages both to parties and voters, but its use may be inhibit by the influence of a number of barriers. The aim of this study is to analyze the Internet use in election campaigns in Portugal, trying to know how parliamentary candidates in the 2009 legislative elections used it as part of their campaign strategies, and also what were the factors that influence this use. It seeks to assess how the Internet was used to reach the voters, communicate with them and to obtain their support, and to know how the candidates’ socio-demographic characteristics and the electoral and partisan environment were barriers in the Internet use in the electoral campaign. This work focuses in the analysis of the survey to the Portuguese parliamentary candidates in the 2009 legislative elections, applied as part of a research project inserted in the international network “Comparative Candidate Survey”. The data shows that, in Portugal, the exploitation of the Internet by the parliamentary candidates is still a little weak and much focused on disseminating information, with little exploration of interactivity with voters. It also became clear that the socio-demographic characteristics of the candidates, how they organize their campaign and their expectations, as well as the political party they belong to are factors that influence Internet use in campaigns.