The election process: Its evils and their solution

Democracy is most dramatically observed in the process of selecting the leaders of our land. This process is crucial as electing the right candidates who are sincere, honest, competent, qualified and dedicated will translate into a leadership that truly serves the people and the country.

The Evils Of The Electoral Process

While democracy, as exercised through the ballot, is an ideal system of choosing a nation’s leaders, the process itself, as it is conducted Philippine style, is fraught with loopholes, problems and evils.

For one, with the advent of multi-parties here as against the former two-party system, it is most difficult and confusing for our people to intelligently choose their leaders. Parties now abound a dime a dozen with no idealogical moorings that differentiates one from the other.

Moreover, political parties breeds undue loyalty to the party even at the expense of the country. Candidates win largely through the well-oiled and organized party that spent money and resources for them to win. To a large extent, then, the winning candidates owes his victory to the party. The natural and ill consequence is the perpetration of political patronage in favor of the party members and supporters. The wise words that "my loyalty to my party ends where my loyalty to the country begins" applies particularly to Quezon and only by way of exception to our present crop of leaders.

By historical experience and record, the politicians themselves, the candidates, do not maintain a high level of campaign. The focus is not on issues and platforms but on personalities. Candidate A will attack the personality of candidate B, ridicule, belittle and spite him in the hustings even as candidate B himself will do the same to his opponent. This divisive way of conducting the campaign breeds bitterness, resentment and ill-will among the contenders and their supporters. Quite expectedly, this hatred, if you will, for each other is carried and remains even after the elections.

The loser never concedes. He was cheated he will always claim. Never humble in defeat, he will file a case alleging that the election was not clean, honest and orderly; that his opponent resorted to vote-buying, flying-voters and vote-rigging. In the meantime, at every opportunity that presents itself, he shall criticize and attempt to undermine the efforts of the winner so that he will fail and fall short of the expectations in his term.

In the same manner, on top of the political patronage for and to the winning group, the newly elected politicians are no less gracious in their victory. Now in power, with the perks, resources and authority of their public office, they shall go after their losing opponents including the latter’s supporters. They shall make life difficult for them. Insidiously, the elected officials shall go after the business interests of their political adversaries, making sure that their businesses flounder and go under.

In this persecutory atmosphere our people can only be divided. The first task of the winning party after an election, which is to unite the people to work as one for the country, is cast aside in favor of satisfying their vindictiveness.

Of course, under this state of affairs, the current administration is doomed to fail from day one. No lasting achievement can be attained by a divided people.

Graver than the penchant of our politicians for not conducting elections in a professional level is their mindset to fuel their campaign through the sheer persuasion of money. The more money they have in their campaign chest, the better for their chances to win.

To be fair, money is, in fact, most necessary to effectively maintain and sustain a campaign up to election day and beyond until all the votes are counted. Posters, streamers, leaflets, radio and television time as well as newspaper space are all legitimate expenses of an electoral endeavor. There are supporters and volunteers to be kept mobile and fed while they go about and around campaigning. There are sample ballots to be distributed as well as watchers to be maintained on election day and in the counting of the votes.

Yet, again, many more of our politicians will require a more robust campaign chest to be used for vote-buying, vote-rigging, intimidation and violence and all the other dirty tricks in the book to ensure victory at the polls by all means.

With such a hefty need for money, where do our candidates get their financial support to run their campaign? Herein lies the roots, the source, the umbilical cord to graft and corruption.

The vested interests and many times the source of dirty money – the vice money from drugs, gambling and prostitution – contribute to the campaign coffers of the candidates. Needless to state, the "contribution" is not without a "condition", however left unwritten and unspoken.

The winning candidates now, sure as the crack of dawn, will recover their campaign expenses, or at least attempt their best to do so. And how will the now public officials "repay" their campaign contributors except to favor them with government contracts and businesses and to leave the vice-lords untouched in their illegal and dark activities? The seed of graft and corruption planted during the campaign season has grown and matured into a full tree.

In the meantime, the electorate and the people are perfunctorily attended to, the election promises all but forgotten, the interests of the Filipinos and their crying needs shelved till the next elections for renewed promises to re-echo. Again, we get the kind of government that we deserve.

The Solution

At this juncture in our history as we are starting a political campaign anew we call on all the candidates to conduct their campaign at the highest level of statesmanship, sticking to issues and qualifications instead of personalities. Even as the candidates woo the votes of the people, they must campaign as friends with their protagonists instead of as enemies, as their common goal, in any case, is to be true servants of the people.

Playing up ill-will and animosity against each other during the campaign will fuel likewise the same sentiment among their respective supporters which attitude will carry over way after the elections. The result will be a divided people and nation where the national agenda for progress and prosperity will constantly be prejudiced and derailed.

Since, as above-discussed, the root cause of graft and corruption after elections is the massive spending during the campaign that is funded through illegitimate sources, there is an urgent need to cut-off the influence of these illegitimate funders by keeping election expenses to the most necessary minimum.

To do this, we must select the "right" people to run for public office; people who, though not monied or popular in the "masa" sense of popularity, have the necessary capability, honesty, integrity and dedication to lead the country out of our economic quagmire and moral bankruptcy. Experience has repeatedly shown that we cannot trust our politicians and political parties to choose the people to run for public office as they are engrossed with their limited and selfish agenda.

Having then chosen the right people, we must make sure that these candidates do not themselves spend or accept financial support from vested groups to finance their campaign. Instead, the people themselves should carry the onus of the legitimate campaign expenses of their candidates with the condition, alone and only, that the would-be public officials shall truly serve the people.

After all, a truly honest and clean election is achieved only when the electorate are able to express their sovereign will through the sanctity of the ballot without being cajoled by expensive propaganda, give-aways, vote-buying schemes and outright intimidation from the candidates. When a candidate engages in this expensive activities, this should already be a warning call to stay-off him and to keep him from taking public office in order to smother at the outset the seed of graft and corruption.

To repeat we must reverse the process of candidates spending at the polls and transfer the burden of the legitimate election expenses to the people. Instead, therefore, of the voters selling their votes, they shall now collectively, according to their capacity, finance the campaign of their candidates. The people themselves must invest in a free, orderly and honest elections as the returns, in terms of good governance from true public servants, is immeasurable.

Further, we suggest that any government official, the Comelec officers and employees especially, who engages or abets in election cheating or who in any way subverts the electoral will shall be made to answer for a heinous crime punishable by the most extreme penalty of lethal injection. One who is charged to preserve the sanctity of the people’s ballot and who betrays this trust deserves only the extreme wrath of a wronged and indignant people.

A Call For A Free, Honest And Orderly Election

Without meaning to be alarming, we can matter of fact say that the country is in a dangerous crossroads of its history. The conflicts within society and people are varied and deep and are already rending our oneness as Filipinos and threatening to tear us apart from within.

As we stand on this social volcano that is ready to erupt and destroy us as a nation, our children look at us with dread and questioning eyes, as though they are already aware of the heaviness in the air, while they await our response to the kind of country we will bequeath to them in their time.

An honest, fair and clean election that will produce the true servants of the people should be our categorical response to them. If we still care.

You may write your comments / suggestions at 15/F Equitable Bank Tower, Paseo de Roxas, Makati City or through e-mail at [email protected])

(Editor’s note: Atty. Roxas is writing a limited series of articles dealing with financial matters and other important business topics. He is available for speaking engagements on the subject matters of his articles.)