Wales Embraces Online Election

LONDON, March 30, 2010 - It's being hailed as Wales' first on-line election and the most eagerly
anticipated for decades with 80%* of people in the country saying they'll be
voting, according to research published today. If this proves true it'll be a
significant increase on what happened in the last election 5 years ago, when
just over 60% of voters turned out.

But the study, commissioned by video communications company Winkball
suggests enthusiasm for the election doesn't necessarily go in hand with
political knowledge. Half of people questioned in Wales can't name their
current MP and only a quarter of voters in Wales know who is standing at the
next election.

In a bid to change this, Welsh prospective parliamentary candidates have
turned to unique messaging website WinkBall.com to upload their bitesize
manifesto online. 40 Welsh candidates are already actively on the site urging
the public to vote for them.
www.winkball.com/walls/Election2010/wales/

This may be a wise move as the research shows that 40% of people in Wales
say seeing your prospective MP on-line on video is now as effective as
getting a leaflet through the door and the younger you are, the more likely
you are to be influenced by seeing a prospective parliamentary candidate
on-line.

The research is part of Winkball.com's unique initiative; "Do you know
who you are voting for?" which aims, for the first time ever in the UK, to
get all 3000 Prospective Parliamentary candidates (PPC's) represented on
video on-line. The WinkBall team have been in Wales over the weekend and have
collected videos from a number of political candidates from each
constituency.

WinkBall co-founder Dr James Ohene-Djan says, "Campaigning has
never been this exciting and, as our research shows, the electorate has never
seemingly been so interested in politics! This is truly an online election
and that gives the electorate an amazing insight into so many prospective
parliamentary candidates. We're aiming to interview and feature as many PPCs
as possible on Winkball.com. This is a first for the UK and a fantastic
opportunity for voters to see what exactly makes their local candidates tick.
General Elections are so often fought and won on national issues, but by
publishing the views of practically every candidate standing online, this is
a great way of making a national election local.

*Research conducted by POLLAB on 10th March 2010, 1080 participants

To set up an interview please call Shout! Communications on +44(0)207-240-7121, for Claire, or +44(0)207-240-8852 for Ashleigh.