Now that the 2007 Philippine Mid-term elections are over, how has cyberspace and cyber-campaigning fared? Can we say that campaigning in the Philippines via electronic media is now a viable option for most candidates pursuing a political career? Can voters now rely on the web for knowing the candidates and their platforms more?

If we are going to look at the partial and unofficial results from the media quick count (as of May 15 11am), 11 out of the top 18 vote getters have websites (9 of those sites were reviewed by this blog) and non-traditional campaign initiatives. Chiz Escudero, the current leader on the quick counts, utilized the web extensively in his campaign to reach out to the youth. While it would require a survey as extensive as the one’s being done by SWS or Pulse Asia to actually determine the effectiveness of cyber-campaigns, it would be safe to think that having a campaign website can help any election campaign.

An interesting trend on the quick counts is the good performance of Antonio Trillanes IV. He is currently incarcerated for leading a military uprising and was not able to attend the campaign sorties. He did, however, have an extensive presence on the web. (Try searching for “Antonio Trillanes” on your favorite search engine.) Again, while it would be jumping to conclusions to say his cyber-campaign is directly responsible for this, it would be wrong to ignore its contribution.

One aspect I am very disappointed about is the very low turnout of the overseas absentee voting. Out of the 504,122 registered voters, only 73, 747 (or 14.6%) voted. I am disappointed because these overseas Filipinos are the direct beneficiaries of the online campaigns. (Well, it has been said that overseas Filipinos are more interested in presidential elections.)

Some more notes:

• The best website belongs to Mike Defensor, slightly edging out Chiz Escudero.
• The worst site is the Ralph Recto website.
• Best use of Flash: Prospero Pichay’s Site (But no alternative non-Flash version?)
• A majority of campaign sites are not standards-compliant and not accessible.

All in all, my assessment is that the elections will not solely hinge on the web yet. There are just too many Filipinos who do not have a web-orientation (not to mention internet access) and the people who do take advantage of the web are still part of the minority (the upper to middle class and the overseas Filipinos). Elections on the Web, at best, is a good support mechanism for on-the-throes-of-success candidates and way to keep the bases covered for sure bets.