Crucial

The first ever automated election system on May 10, 2010 is supposed to make our elections cleaner and more orderly. But ironically barely 110 days before elections ominous signs indicate that it will be dirtier and more disorderly.

Under the Omnibus Election Code, it is unlawful for any person, whether a candidate or not, to engage in partisan political activity or to campaign before the start of the campaign period (Section 80). This means that for the coming elections, candidates running for national office are prohibited from campaigning before February 8, 2010 while candidates running for local posts cannot campaign before March 26, 2010.

But the Supreme Court in the now celebrated case of Penera vs. Andanar, after initially upholding Section 80, flip-flopped and ruled that it has been repealed by the poll automation law (R.A. 8436 as amended by R.A. 9369). Hence there is no such thing anymore as premature campaigning. Aspirants for any position can now promote their candidacies any time. Moneyed candidates who can afford to air and publish expensive and long running infomercials, advertisements and campaign posters will flood and pollute the media of communications, public places and vehicles with more of such dirty campaign gimmicks and propaganda materials. They will have undue advantage. Candidates with financial capability or with more “friends” contributing to the campaign chests than those with competency for the position will have more chances of winning. The election campaign will be a bigger and noisier carnival creating more bedlam. It is happening right now and it promises to be worse as the election nears.

There are over 50 million registered voters. Admittedly many of them choose candidates mainly because of easy name recall due to lack of proper and sufficient voter-education. They are not sufficiently informed of the importance and value of their votes in the promotion of the general welfare and common good. They have not been properly taught that the choice of candidates should be based on their platforms for the nation and qualifications for the positions rather than on personal appeal and popularity. In the coming elections, voters will again troop to polling places not only with such lack of, or limited literacy on the proper exercise of their right of suffrage, but also with limited knowledge and lack of exposure to the electronic gadgets to be used in the poll automation. This is another nightmarish confusion in the making that may turn our election into a big farce.

Recently, the COMELEC still increased the number of presidential candidates. It even reversed itself by including an aspirant who is obviously more of a nuisance than a serious candidate with a family name starting in “A”. Apparently he has been fielded for some sinister motive of sabotaging the candidacy of Noynoy Aquino the current frontrunner who will be dislodged from the number 1 position in the official ballot listing. Then it accredited 144 groups for party list representatives for only 57 Lower House seats including that women’s group with a ridiculous name and a ridiculous proposal of fixing a period for validity of marriage. With so many national candidates and an equal number, if not more local candidates, the official ballot will be so lengthy as to overwhelm, disorient or even disable voters to completely and properly fill them. As they say in computer science, “garbage in, garbage out”.

Furthermore, records show that there are 1,630 towns and municipalities in the country so 1,630 different sets of ballots for the 50 million voters have to be printed. Up to now, the COMELEC has not yet come out with an official list because it has apparently left to the Supreme Court, the decision on the qualification of some candidates. Sometimes one cannot help but feel that the COMELEC itself is making it hard for the poll automation to succeed.

Pursuant to the contract with Smartmatic, the 82,200 PICOS machines for the automated elections is supposed to be delivered starting October 1, up to December 30, 2009. But the deadline has expired with no complete delivery yet, so it was extended to February 28, 2010. By that date, time may be precariously short for the training of the people involved in the handling and operations of said machines. Indeed in the recent testing of the machines only about 5% of the ballots filled were properly read allegedly because of “shading thresholds”. These twin problems in ballot printing and ballot reading are indeed ominous signs of a possible failure of the first automated polls.

Actually even if poll automation will push through these coming elections, there is also the danger that the results can still be manipulated. Recent news about the hacking of the computer operations in three government agencies provides enough bases for these fears. Also, there are reports circulating that access to these electronic machines is possible without passing through Telcos. These are really causes for alarm.

Admittedly, automation of elections is a universal cry of the electorate because of fraud and deceit in the counting and canvassing of the votes. There are so many instances in the past where candidates win in the election but lost in the counting and canvassing. Because of this experience people welcomed the automation of election with wide open arms.

Almost everybody really look forward to poll automation. There is no doubt about it. And the COMELEC seems to be determined in pushing through with it on May 10, 2010 elections. In its determination however it should not be over optimistic but more vigilant and realistic. The greater and more crucial concern here is that we must have clean and orderly elections on May 10, 2010 whether manual or automated.