EDITORIAL - Cleaning up the Maguindanao vote

During the midterm elections in 2007, Lintang Bedol famously lost election returns in Maguindanao where he was the election supervisor. A few days later, he announced that the missing documents had been found, as mysteriously as they had disappeared. The Senate slate of the Arroyo administration went on to win big in Maguin-danao, even as nearly all of its candidates lost when the votes nationwide were tallied.

Bedol later went into hiding as he was investigated on charges of tampering with the vote in Maguindanao. He resurfaced several months ago, reportedly seeking to turn state witness and talk about vote manipulation in the province. This week he pleaded not guilty to charges of poll fraud.

While the fate of Bedol hangs, the Commission on Elections should focus its attention on the province that has become synonymous with vote manipulation and election violence. The election cheating and violence are intertwined; harassing or murdering rivals and supporters can be quicker and, in certain aspects, easier than trying to manipulate the vote.

The massacre of 57 people, with one more victim believed missing, in Maguindanao in November 2009 was just the most atrocious attempt to intimidate a political rival in the province. Maguindanao has also been tagged as the venue for other major cases of poll fraud. Any serious attempt to clean up the country’s electoral process should give special attention to Maguindanao.

With the next midterm elections just a year away, the cleanup should be starting in earnest at this time. As the 2007 elections showed, poll results in even one province can alter the outcome of contests for national positions. The previous Comelec chairman, Jose Melo, can point to the country’s first fully automated general elections in 2010 as his legacy. For Melo’s successor, Sixto Brillantes, a good legacy would be instilling integrity in the Maguindanao vote.