DAP supporters overwhelmingly male-centric as women shy away, Facebook survey shows

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 — Interest in DAP is as high as 80 per cent male in some age segments despite men only marginally outnumbering women on Facebook in Malaysia, social media researcher Politweet found in its latest study.

In its census of political interest among Malaysia’s 18 million Facebook users, the group found that attention for DAP among males, particularly in the younger age groups, far outstripped the already male-heavy distribution in the country.

This will also be of particular concern for the party as the study showed that it was now beginning to lose the interest of women users on Facebook.

At 80 per cent and 78 per cent respectively, DAP and Umno both command comparable levels of interest among males aged 13-20, but this remained unchanged for DAP in the 21-30 group when it descended to 69 per cent for Umno.

In comparison, PKR and PAS registered 62 per cent and 60 per cent interest among males in the first age group, levels that remained relatively consistent as users became older.

“Interest in DAP is too male-dominant with 80 per cent of interest from users aged 13 – 30 being male.

“Additionally, DAP has been experiencing a decline in interest from women since July 2015. PAS and PKR are more balanced in terms of gender ratio though still largely male,” Politweet noted.

The overall Facebook population in Malaysia is 18 million, of which 14 million are considered “potential voters” by dint of being over 21 years old. From the 14 million, 7.8 million were politically inclined.

By gender, the breakdown was 55 per cent male for the overall population. The male bias grew when this was filtered down to the 7.8 million expressing interest in local politics, rising to 58 per cent male.

Opposition-inclined Facebook users also demonstrated a stronger male bias than the larger population, with nearly 65 per cent of the 5.4 million who were interested in the federal opposition being male.

“DAP’s audience is the most male-dominant with 74.4 per cent of interest in DAP coming from male users. This is well above the 58 per cent male audience that is interested in all political parties,” according to Politweet.

The research group also noted that interest among female users for DAP has been on the decline since July, after having nearly peaked at 1.5 million users in April. It has now descended to around the one million user mark, where it last reached in October last year.

In comparison, female interest in Umno has steadily recovered from a sharp drop in February, when it nearly halved from the two million-user level, although it is unclear what prompted the steep decline then.

Umno and DAP were shown in another part of the Politweet study to be the two most significant parties of interest among Facebook users in Malaysia, with both eclipsing the partners in their individual coalitions.

“DAP and Umno’s similar patterns indicate a close relationship. We can theorise that this is due to supporters from both parties talking about each other in addition to their own party. News reports on DAP and Umno would also contribute to this trend.

“However DAP has been losing interest from women since June 2015. If this trend continues the close relationship between Umno and DAP may start to change in the next few months,” Politweet added.