Most Read
Most Commented
Read more like this
story images
story images
story images
mk-logo
News

KINIGUIDE Crowd sizes at political rallies have become an important yardstick of the success of the organisers and to assess support from the public, which is why there has always been contention over crowd size estimates.

This can be due to many factors, ranging from human error to vested interests.

For example, organisers of a rally would have a reason to estimate their crowd size in the higher range.

As such, the police will usually provide one figure, while the organisers will provide another.

To make matters more confusing, the press also tends to cite different numbers of crowd size for any particular rally.

A good example of the disparity in crowd size estimates was over the Bersih 4 rally, which took place in August 2015.

The organisers had claimed that at its peak, there were 500,000 people in attendance at the Bersih 4 rally, while the police gave a much more conservative estimate of 50,000.

Meanwhile, various media outlets provided different estimates of the crowd size, ranging from 22,000 to 100,000.

With such significant discrepancies in estimates provided, it is no wonder that people have questioned the best way to determine crowd size at a rally.

Unlocking Article
Unlocking Article
View Comments
ADS