EDITORIAL - One more time for Namfrel’s quick count

The National Movement for Free Elections has received both cheers and jeers in its long years of involvement in the Philippine electoral process. There is no question, however, that Namfrel’s involvement has kept the Commission on Elections on its toes. Until the last elections, the Comelec’s vote count remained agonizingly slow. And the last elections showed that the Philippine electoral process continues to be marred by guns, goons and gold. But many people will agree that things could have been worse without Namfrel and its Operation Quick Count.

Recently the Comelec announced that Namfrel and its quick count would no longer be needed in the general elections next year. This is possible, Comelec officials said, because Philippine elections will be automated for the first time in May 2004. The automation has been long awaited; the nation’s first electoral exercise in the new millennium was supposed to have been fully computerized. Comelec infighting, politics and the usual glitches that accompany any juicy government contract in this country, however, dashed hopes for automation.

Now the Comelec is telling us that automation will finally push through. This is welcome news. The nation’s antiquated slow count has become a laughingstock in many parts of the world, where results of general elections are known within 24 hours after the polling centers close. In contrast, votes in the Philippines until 2001 were still laboriously tallied on blackboards or paper tacked on to boards. Ballot boxes were still snatched or switched on their way to canvassing centers. The canvassing took weeks to complete, fueling tension and instability. Filipinos will applaud the news that the electoral system will finally be mo-dernized.

The only thing that must be clarified is the extent of poll automation. If only Metro Manila and key urban centers will have computerized voting systems, chaos is the likely result. Partial automation also means the Comelec will have to retain Namfrel’s quick count. Even if automation co-verage will be extensive enough, it will be prudent for the Comelec to retain Namfrel’s quick count this one last time, while computerization glitches are not yet known. The Comelec has nothing to lose if it keeps Namfrel’s services in May 2004.