Ahmed Abu Ghazala reviews the virtual rivalry that saw the elections extend to cyberspace Egypt's 14.5 million regular users of the Internet presented a challenging target for the election's media strategists, with cyber campaigning emerging as an important feature of the polls. Parties adopted different approaches to the online promotion of candidates. The National Democratic Party (NDP) opted to customise its campaign, providing different electoral programmes for each constituency, an attempt bedeviled by technical problems. Clicking on constituency icons was a redundant exercise since no on-screen manifesto appeared. The problem was compounded by the fact that there were no details on individual candidates. Instead, the website was reduced to broadcasting news promoting them and simultaneously attacking the Muslim Brotherhood's (MB) candidates. Representatives of other political parties were barely mentioned. On election day the website provided a "live from the operations room" service furnishing news of the voting process and after the polls closed did little beyond transmit party leaders' statements. The MB's website was mainly dedicated to broadcasting news of what it said were security forces' attempts to stymie its candidates' chances. The site also gave prominence to the statements of MB candidates, most of which denounced the ballot as fraudulent. The website did, however, provide personal information about candidates and details of their constituencies, listing contact information for spokesmen to answer any media questions. For reasons that have yet to be determined the MB's website could not be accessed on election day. It remained closed until Monday evening. When it returned online it continued with its attacks against both the NDP and government, accusing them of bullying and fraud. The Wafd is the only major opposition political party with an official website. It covered the activities of candidates without broadcasting news or allegations of electoral fraud or attacking other candidates. Wafd candidates were listed according to their constituencies and while CVs and programmes were available often additional information could not be accessed. The website wasn't updated on polling day or the day after and subsequently a single news story was added covering a press conference at which Wafd Chairman El-Sayed El-Badawi accused NDP candidates of malpractice and bullying. Facebook was used by many political groups and their candidates, though in a manner that bolstered sectarianism. Brotherhood candidates promoted Islamic slogans while the pages of Coptic candidates, such as that of Alfi El-Magidi, standing in Bandar Al-Minya, lacked a single post by a Muslim. The MB was the most active group using social networks. It created a page to introduce and promote its candidates which was supplemented by the special groups created by supporters of individual candidates. The MB was the only political body to create an account on Twitter to introduce its candidates, though the account was inactive throughout the last week of the campaign. The NDP's Facebook group was virtually redundant, though some candidates, such as Hisham Mustafa Khalil, were extremely active on the social network. The Wafd had an active Facebook page and though few candidates used the site actively some, like Rami Lakah, exploited its potential. Although other political parties had pages on Facebook they were not used for campaign purposes. The shortcomings of the traditional media's election coverage lent significance to new communication technologies, including mobile phone videos. Newspapers such as Masry Al-Yom and Al-Yom Al-Sabei broadcast several short videos made by readers on their sites. Khaled Salah, Al-Yom Al-Sabei 's editor-in-chief, said in Al-Ashera Masaan talk show that "readers posted the links in their comments". One video broadcast on Al-Yom Al-Sabei 's website -- released by the Independent Coalition for Monitoring the Election -- was shot on a cell phone. It showed NDP candidate Alaa Bashto, standing in Farskour in Damietta, breaking the ballot box and throwing voting papers on the ground. Al-Masry Al-Yom says its website had 400,000 hits during election day, its Facebook page 79,000 and its Twitter account 6,000. The newspaper said it had shown six hours of video and used 2,000 reports provided by readers, including photos. Hundreds of videos and reports were posted on Youtube and Facebook, where the users exchanged. The Development and Institutionalisation Support Centre attempted to gather such efforts on a Facebook page called Shahed, or "You are a witness", which was active in broadcasting videos and posting reports of violations.
