In their blogs and on Internet websites like Facebook, they root for Mr Barack Obama, 46, the telegenic candidate who is competing against Mrs Hillary Clinton, 60, to be the Democratic Party's nominee.

The Republican contest is over with 71-year-old senator Mr John McCain as its nominee.

Much of the buzz here extols Mr Obama's message of change, and at least two Singaporean fans of his have posted links to his webpage on their profiles in Facebook, a social networking website.

One American based in Singapore, who sports an Obama lapel button and has a pro-Obama website, says Singaporeans have stopped him on the streets to offer their support.

A pro-Obama blogger is National University of Singapore (NUS) master's student Aaron Ng, 28.

The Singaporean has an entry in his blog titled Hear Ye, Hear Ye, where he writes about Mr Obama's ability to rally people around him.

There is support for Mr Obama 'among young people who read my blog', said Mr Ng, who is also a teaching assistant at NUS' communications and new media programme.

'He's attractive because he flies in the face of norms like experience and age that Singaporeans are used to.'

Another Obama fan, Mr Ashraf Mohamed, 32, is the operations manager and co-owner of the Candy Empire, which has three candy stores here.

'Politics here is not as thrilling as in the US,' he said, adding that the outcome of the United States election will affect the world and the region.

On his partisan political view, he said: 'Obama preaches hope, tolerance, change and dialogue, which is appealing to me.'

NUS student Abdullah Luqman, 25, is another Singaporean who has added the Obama web-link to his Facebook profile.

He, and most of the others interviewed, said they are 'turned off' by Mrs Clinton and Mr McCain.

They find Mrs Clinton not always sincere and think a McCain administration will not differ much from that of incumbent President George W. Bush.

Another Singaporean, Mr Shanthan Selvakumar, 28, an energy analyst at AES Corp, a power company that also deals in climate change, tracks the US hustings on TV. 'If I were an American, I would probably vote for Obama. He is inspirational,' said Mr Selvakumar, who has a Facebook link to Mr Obama.

Meanwhile, American Benjamin Brown, 35, managing director of an engineering service company, is an unofficial organiser for the Obama campaign here.

His website for Americans here, 'Singapore Obama Supporters', is linked to the official US campaign effort.

Mr Brown said one donation of US$50 (S$69) has been made to his website.

Although some Singaporeans interviewed had expressed an interest in donating money to the Obama campaign, Mr Brown said US law allowed only Americans to do so officially.

Lawyer Indranee Rajah, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, thinks young Singaporeans' interest in 'politics elsewhere' is healthy as they 'should not have a narrow world view'.

Mr Sin Boon Ann, an MP for Tampines GRC, added: 'Interest in US politics originates mainly because it is a superpower and is fashionable, much like English Premier League football.'

Associate Professor Bilveer Singh, from NUS' political science department, agrees. He suggested that while the interest in Mr Obama seemed to be worldwide, Singaporeans pay such great attention to American politics because of its supposed contrast to the more predictable politics here.

Mr Selvakumar felt that interest in foreign and local politics need not be mutually exclusive. 'In the last local elections, Facebook was not as popular as it is now. Who knows what might happen when the next elections come around?' he said.

Is it strange for Singaporeans to be supporting Obama? Send your comments to suntimes@sph.com.sg