EDITORIAL - Manual count is the texters' choice in a pageant

It is good the Comelec stood firm in refusing to give in to the demands of certain sectors for the conduct of a parallel manual count of the votes when the country goes into its first automated elections on May 10.

The reasons why a parallel manual count is both wrong and unnecessary are actually many. Not surprisingly, these sectors would have none of these reasons, because their supposed concern for the integrity of the polls is but a clever ruse to hide their political agenda.

To have a parallel manual count along with automated polls is no different from having a texters' choice award to match a particular contest, such as a beauty pageant. Indeed, Cebuanos may still remember what a big mess having the two together once created.

It is always dangerous to have parallel counts that do not proceed along similar paths. Before automation, it was perfectly all right for the official Comelec count to be matched by a citizens' unofficial count because both followed manual procedures.

But to have an official automated count matched by another official but manual count is a recipe for disaster, especially since the integrity of the automated count is being assailed even before there is anything to count.

The end result in such a situation will not be for one to back up or even ensure the integrity of the other, as we are being made to believe, but for the one to actually assail the results of the other.

Had the Comelec allowed such a stupidity, it would have set in motion the next phase of the real agenda behind the push for a parallel manual count -- the creation of a situation where the presidency can be decided in two ways: Election or power grab.

Let us give the automated polls a chance, not just to work, but more importantly to prove that we Filipinos have grown mature enough to stand by our decisions after we make them. We used to have manual polls but opted to automate. Let us finish what we started like men of honor.