Malaysia’s 14th General Election via Twitter: An analysis using the epidemiological model

Abstract

Twitter has been prominently used during the electoral campaigns. Twitter helps the politicians to spread and share their political agenda. Through Twitter, every information is accessible to anyone and anybody around the world in keeping up with the latest information like a manifesto and others that relate to political issues. However, the popularity of political parties and leaders that could raise the winning opportunities in the election is not fully understood. This study aims to analyse the spreading of information during Malaysia’s 14th General Election via Twitter. This study employed an epidemiological model which is a system of differential equations known as Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR). The model involves three state variables, which are active Twitter users (S), the transmission node (I) and immune Twitter users (R). The Twitter accounts owned by two political parties and two political leaders have been followed before and after the election. The influence of contact rate between active Twitter users and the transmission node of Twitter users on Malaysia’s 14th General Election was analysed. The results showed that the contact rate between active Twitter users and the transmission node of the Twitter users has a significant influence on Malaysia’s 14th General Election.