EDITORIAL - System failure

With employees staging lunchtime strikes over financial problems besetting the Commission on Elections, the poll body is unlikely to resolve by the end of the month some 700 election cases that have reportedly piled up in the past weeks. After June 30, cases that have not been resolved by the Comelec can still be pursued, but only through election protests. As the case of the "congressman for a day" showed, it could take three years – the entire term of a local official – for such protests to be resolved with finality. And those guilty of fraud or incompetence are rarely made to suffer for it.

If the government cannot get any poll automation project off the ground, it should at least work out a better system of resolving election protests. With legal remedies a farce, the prospect of being robbed of one’s mandate makes candidates who think they have been cheated resort to everything from murder to people power and endless efforts to disrupt governance by the proclaimed winner.

Failure to act speedily on election cases is unfair to candidates with limited resources, who will have to fork out money if they want ballot boxes reinspected for a vote recount when they pursue an election protest. It is equally unfair to the people who voted for a candidate who wins but can’t serve because a cheater has been proclaimed, and the proclamation cannot be quickly overturned.

Three years is barely enough time for a local official to finish development projects and implement reforms in his jurisdiction. The real winner must assume office as soon as possible, but obviously this can happen only if elections cases are also resolved ASAP. Yet it is doubtful, given the track record of the Comelec especially in this year’s polls, that election cases can be resolved faster. This system failure is a major cause of political instability. It’s time to do something about it.