Election is undoubtedly an essential component of democracy. It is one of the best method by which the sovereign will of the people is determined. But not in the Philippines. Here the election is not democratic and free. It is the bane of democracy. Because of the kind of election we have, people, especially the younger generation, are beginning to believe that democracy is not after all good for us. And this is due to several factors.
First of all, we have a low quality of voters. The intelligent, wise and politically well versed voters who have the best interest of the country at heart–the middle class– are greatly outnumbered by those who are ignorant or ill informed about this very important political exercise and who are easily swayed by the momentary satisfaction of their urgent needs only during election time, or by the celluloid and popular appeal of those wooing their votes, or by the dictates of the leaders of religious flocks to which they belong. The quality of our voters is best reflected by the kind of elected officials we now have.
Secondly, we have inadequate or ineffective enforcement of the law regulating the campaign methods and campaign spending. Despite a fixed campaign period, candidates already start campaigning for the next election immediately after the preceding election by putting up streamers and posters everywhere extending their Christmas or Birthday Greetings or Congratulations or announcing their public works projects. Right now, some known candidates are using their positions in "aid of their election". And during the campaign period itself, the poster ban is more honored in breach while the limits on campaign spending are only observed on paper.
Thirdly, the conduct of our voting itself is still vulnerable to so many forms of fraud, cheating, vote buying or terrorism. This is an age old problem that cannot be solved because even as they occur every election time, they are just dismissed as insignificant since they allegedly do not affect the overall outcome of the elections anyway, which are always described as "generally clean, honest, and peaceful". This attitude is like that of an Ostrich burying its head on the sand.
And fourthly, our manner of counting is still antiquated and too tedious. Final results are known only after one month at the earliest. In between that period, when the counting, tallying and canvassing are going on, there are so many opportunities for altering the true results and perpetrating "dagdag bawas". We have yet to hear from Comelec about the much ballyhooed mechanization of the entire electoral process.
So many solutions to the foregoing problems have already been proposed. There is the intensified voter education campaign; the imposition of the legal residency requirement to qualify voters especially from the squatters area; the stricter and more resolute enforcement of rules on campaign posters and expenses; the elimination of so many layers in determining the final results from the precinct level to the board of canvassers; and of course the mechanization of the entire process. But they are taken up only everytime an election draws nearer. And so we are bound to have more of the same rotten political exercise as in the past.
In the meantime, the more vicious face of underworld politics is looming large and flexing its well financed muscles. It might just succeed in drastically changing our political landscape because in our kind of election where the leader is directly elected by the majority of voters who are politically uneducated and economically impoverished, money and machinery are the major winning factors. This is not necessarily true and less likely to happen if the leader is indirectly elected through members of the parliament who are supposed to be politically wiser and economically independent.
Our options are therefore getting narrower. We cannot afford anymore to proceed headstrong into that election without effecting meaningful changes in our system of government. We might have to Cha-Cha and shift to the parliamentary system before it is too late.