As Colombia’s presidential elections draw closer, presidential candidates are using the internet to garner voter support. Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus is leading the social networking popularity game, while Partido de la U candidate Juan Manuel Santos tops the Google search list, El Espectador reports.
With over 9,000 Twitter followers, former Bogota mayor Mockus has beaten his new running mate Sergio Farjado, who comes a close second with 8,700.
Election front-runner Santos is the most searched-for candidate on Google, but has not embraced social networking sites like his competitors.
Antanas Mockus has attracted more “Facebook friends” than any other candidate, with Polo Democratico candidate Gustavo Petro the runner-up.
El Espectador started to assess the online interest in each Colombian presidential candidates this week, by measuring four indicators including Twitter followers, Facebook fans, Google searches, and the popularity of each candidate’s website, as calculated by alexa.com.
There are over 20 million people connected to the internet in Colombia, according to El Espectador.
Websites like Twitter and Facebook have been thought to be influential in election campaigns in other counties, including Sebastian Pinera’s rise to power in Chile, and Barack Obama’s historic victory in the U.S.
