Expert System analyses the electoral programs and the most discussed topics on Twitter about the Spanish general election of June 26.
– Expert System Iberia has analysed the electoral programs of the four major parties contesting the Spanish elections, as well as the most discussed topics on Twitter on the day of the general election. To perform the analysis, the team of researchers of Expert System has used the Cogito Studio technology, a multilingual cognitive software based on AI algorithms that simulate the human ability to read and understand on a deep level. To prepare the report, more than 100,000 tweets posted between 12th and 14th of June were tracked.
The main conclusion to be drawn from the analysis is that is that employment is the issue that has attracted the greatest number of comments on Twitter, as well as most of the space in the electoral programs of the parties. The labour market has been mentioned in over 18% of the tweets analysed and it led the ranking of thematic categorization in the electoral programs of the Popular Party (PP) (18.22%), left-wing Unidos Podemos (17.38%), centre-right Ciudadanos (15.71%) and Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) (14.48%). The second main topics covered by the electoral programs were: education (Ciudadanos), culture (Unidos Podemos), research (PSOE) and finally health (PP). In contrast, these issues had very little relevance in the tweets posted by Spanish voters. According to the report, users have talked to a greater extent on issues related to taxation and corruption, the latter being the most mentioned topic on Twitter during the broadcast of the candidates’ televised debate.
Surprisingly, while people on social networks gave great importance to the latter issues, these have a small role in the electoral programs. Equally notable is the fact that the topics with high media coverage such as immigration, terrorism, the refugee crisis or the independence of Catalonia had no significant relevance neither in the parties’ proposals nor in the most discussed topics on Twitter.
Rajoy is the most mentioned leader and Unidos Podemos the main party on Twitter
Among the political leaders the most mentioned on Twitter during the televised debate of June 13th, Mariano Rajoy led the ranking with 4,461 mentions, followed by Pablo Iglesias (3,510), Albert Rivera (3,224) and Pedro Sanchez (1,941). With regard to the most popular parties on the social networks, Unidos Podemos ranked first with 2,985 occurrences, followed by the PP (1,891), the PSOE (1,584) and Ciudadanos (1,379). Likewise, Greece and Venezuela were the countries the most often repeated by users of Twitter during the broadcast of the candidates’ debate.
