Websites of Portuguese parties: The mirror of digital democracy in Portugal (sometimes embarrassed) – opinion

By Rui Martins

At the time of elections on the streets and networks, the digital presence of political parties is no longer a general support. It became the center. If social networks guarantee visibility and immediate dispute, the party’s websites remain a digital basis for serious, stable, structural information, the details of programs, all contact channels and ultimately, their institutional film. This is certainly about this digital presence that I have focused on a recent study and read it in it Website Movement for democracy / movement participating for the democracy of parties (MDP) and its results may be contactedHere

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The study analyzed the websites of Portuguese political parties with objective technical standards. Web development is estimated to be widely recognized in the world: Google Lighthouse, Wave and Readability Test tool, performance, access, good techniques, SEO and readability. The result? The party is a different image as a spectrum, and sometimes uneven, it is worrying.

Some are surprising:

At the head of the General Table we have found the acting (previously Purp), the party of the short media expression, but the ideal digital approach. With the total score of 74.99, it stands in almost all measurements. Laughter (68:14) and PTP (60.24) are followed, and digital professionalism always proves that it is not always associated with political size or notorious.

At the opposite intensity, JPP (with 0 score), PEV (18:12) and PSD (31.52), three parties, for various reasons, were among those who failed to evaluated. At this level, we are talking about structural failures: slowly loading, clear access disorders, the best basic web development techniques are difficult to understand and disrespect.

Performance: The speed is also politically

The loading speed of the Google Lighthouse valuable site may seem like technical details, but it has direct implications for the user experience and also has a page visibility in search engines. Here, the laws stand again with a score of 93, followed by RIR (82) and Volt (69). These results show care for limited resources known as “time”.

In contrast, parties like JPP, PEV and PSD get the worst results in this metric. In the event that someone can decide whether or not to leave the website for seconds, neglect in this field is a strategic error with a real impact on election results.

Access: Democracy does not exclude anyone

Digital access is measured by the lighthouse and verified by the wave tool, which is a metric. People with visual, auditory or motor weakness can navigate with content, understand and communicate websites that can be accessed. Here, once again, actions with 95 scores and RIR lead. The Liberal Initiative is also well ranked with 93 points.

But especially the serious thing is the sum of the errors identified by the wave in some parties’ websites. PEV accumulates 138 shortcomings, most of which are related to contrast – reading for those with visual difficulties. Free 45 errors, steep 44 and DNA 52. These numbers have been expressed in the absence of basic audit for websites and the needs of a significant part of the population.

Good practices: the basic elements that most ignore

Another one of the columns evaluated by good development techniques (security, compatibility, use of HTTPS, responsive design, others). Here, the MPT, PTP, actions and laughter reaches the maximum score (100), which conveys faith and great technology.

Other parties such as PSD, IL and BE are solid values ​​(96), but are still lower than a maximum. For example, the NC has only 82 points, which denies some of the implementation errors that can easily be corrected with a minimum audit.

SEO: It is not enough to be online, you have to be found

Optimization (SEO) for search engines is an important tool to see the political matters, candidates or proposals for voters for proposals. Here come with CDS, PCTP/MRPP, PPM, NC and perfect scores (100). However, it is important to underline that only the technical part of the lighthouse SEO can only estimate (metadata, HTML structure, lack of critical errors), not an anCe torch or depth of content, where a real battle is done for citizens’ attention (and vote).

To read: If no one understands, no one will participate

Finally, Portuguese political parties are a very neglected factor to read. Using the Readability Test tool, the study is only three parties: laws (43.9), NC (32.4) and Volt (28.6), current content with good readability. On the other hand, parties like IL (-33.1), PSD (-5.8) and PS (-0.3) use a very complex language, long frossic structures and dense vocabulary. In a country with a worring level of functional literacy, clearly and accessing should be a priority rather than luxury and accessing.

1. In this scenario, this study leaves a set of basic recommendations that strengthen and expand here:
2. Parties such as PEV, Free, Rise and DNA should invest in deep technical revisions of websites, which ensure the full consent of the best international access standards.
3. PSD, JPP and PEV urgently optimize their websites, image compression, code minimum (or minimum: the process of removing all unnecessary letters from the JavaScript source code) and effective cache.
4. IL, PSD and PS should review the used language, betting on clear, direct and affordable works.
5. Parties with good results must perform good methods already implemented and strengthened, and make sure that their positioning is not in decline.
6. Despite good technical notes, most parties are still really failing to create the relevant and researchers’ content (SEO).

It is important to remember that the existence of digital is not a timeline project. It is essential to maintain a continuous evaluation process, updates and improvements.

Within a month from the next legislative election, I believe that parties have a unique opportunity (and responsibility) to prove that they will take communication with all citizens. The website is not just a digital visiting card, above all, the ability to comply with the company’s mirror, voter care and contemporary challenges.