Elections, plastic flags, technology and viral videos!

There are two sure ways to know when it’s the season for us to vote.

One is when roads miraculously become better overnight and drains that have been clogged (since the last election, no less) are finally foremost on your MP’s mind.

The other is the sight of really absurd amounts of posters, flags and banners, all in valiant hope of making you vote for a certain candidate.

I’m sure expediting the planet’s demise by way of choking her with even more useless plastic and chopping down more trees is necessary to a certain extent. Sure, it turns the whole country into a blue/red/green carnival of sorts (if it isn’t already one…).

But I’d vote for the day when we can do away with all that wastage. Instead, I would like to see candidates using technology and the web more to help them campaign effectively, especially in urban areas where voters spend a significant portion of their time online.

I did a search this morning, and was encouraged when I found some of our political aspirants on Facebook. Some of them even have their own sites which have updated and relevant content. However unfortunately I couldn’t find very much else, and there certainly wasn’t a proper and cohesive online campaign, with all the information a voter needs to know. A good benchmark would be how the Americans do it!

What I did find, though, was a forwarded viral video in my email inbox. It had some 37,000 views in just four days. Someone do the math and compare that with bits of hanging plastic and having mug shots plastered on every available wall…