P-Noy still on campaign mode

Incumbent US President Barack Obama is again facing the American voters who will troop to  polling precincts all over the states this Tuesday (Wednesday here). Democrats all over the US count on Mr. Obama to beat his rival, Republican presidential standard-bearer Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

In his Twitter Account, Mr.Obama told his followers that he was proud to be among the first Americans to cast their vote last October 26 in a polling center put up at the Martin Luther Community Center in his home city in Chicago. “For all of you who have not yet early voted, I just want everybody to see what an undeniably efficient process this was, thanks to the outstanding folks who are at this particular polling place,” Obama’s Twitter read. Mr. Obama further wrote on Twitter he was told that it was the first time in US history that an incumbent has voted early and in person.

A number of American states allow voting prior to election day. According to initial reports, Mr. Obama built up a lead over Romney among the early voters in the run-up to the  Nov.6 US presidential polls.

Later that day, I came across a photo of Obama casting his vote posted in the Facebook (FB) account of Cesar Flores, Smartmatic president for Asia-Pacific. Flores heads this company that installed our country’s first-ever automated election system used by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) during the May 2010 presidential elections.

In his FB, Flores posted: “Obama realizó su voto anticipado hoy en una maquina de votación desarrollada por Smartmatic!” (Translating his own post, the Venezuelan wrote: Obama early voted today on a voting machine developed by Smartmatic!)

The photo of Mr. Obama shows him standing in front of a covered machine that looks like  Smartmatic’s precinct count optical scanning (PCOS) machine. But we have no way of confirming that, aside from the claim of Flores.

If the boast of Flores is true, then either Obama or Romney who wins in tomorrow’s US presidential election will join President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III as Smartmatic’s satisfied customers. P-Noy is the first PCOS-elected president in the Philippines.

If re-elected, it would mean Obama  has done well to improve the lives of the American people four years after  he  took office at the White House. Credited as the first African-American US President, Mr.Obama is pictured in pre-poll surveys as having difficulty  to win by a wide margin over Romney.

A video of a four-year-old girl crying her eyes out in frustration at “Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney” has hit a soft spot among  millions of election-weary Americans. It was posted on YouTube by her mother and has so far garnered more than 2 million views and countless Twitter comments from Americans who sympathized with the young girl’s lament on the relentless campaign by the camps of Obama and Romney. 

“I’m tired of Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney,” Abigael, wearing a pink ‘Hello Kitty’ coat, tells her mother as tears stream down her face. ”That’s why you’re crying? Oh, it’ll be over soon Abby, OK? The election will be over soon,” her mother is heard saying on camera, as the girl hiccups and unhappily replies: “OK.” You can view this at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjrthOPLAKM).

Though our own mid-term elections will be held  next summer yet, we are also having the same intense campaign this early among our senatoriables. No wonder Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes has sent two of his commissioners,  Armando Velasco and Grace Padaca, to observe the Nov. 6 US presidential polls.

Brillantes sent the two Comelec commissioners to attend seminars in the US upon the invitation of the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES), a non-government organization that promotes free and fair elections.

The observation tour and seminar will be held in Washington DC from Nov. 4 to 8. The Comelec chief assigned the two commissioners to also  learn the best practices from the American election rules on campaign spending that can be adopted  for the May 2013 polls.

A former election lawyer himself, Brillantes noted the many loopholes in our country’s election laws that candidates go around  and take advantage of, especially on campaign contributions and election spending. Brillantes believes  lessons from the US experience that the two commissioners may learn might help the Comelec in pushing for the amendment of Republic Act (RA) No. 9006, or the Fair Election Act.

Despite such election laws to level the playing field among candidates, Brillantes noted candidates still manage to come up with ingenious ways and strategies, short of violating the existing election rules.  The Comelec has been pushing in Congress a proposed limit in  campaign contributions since elections have become fund-raising activities for some unscrupulous candidates.

At present, the poll body is beset with  clear statutes on what constitute premature campaigning as well as rules to make sure candidates will not overspend in the campaign.

Among these proposed legislations is House Bill no. 2571 that seeks to bar all public officials, whether elected or appointed, to endorse any product or service in any form or medium.

Among those  who are endorsing products or who appear in ads that promote certain advocacies  are  the likes of re-electionist Senators Francis Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano and Koko Pimentel, former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, Reps. Juan Edgardo Angara and Jack Enrile and Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn.

Despite the repeated appeals by Brillantes and election watchdog groups, many candidates pulled various stunts to promote themselves to voters during All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days at the public cemeteries and even at private memorial parks.

P-Noy, who visited his late parents tomb at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City last All Souls’ Day, was distributing  yellow ballers. Unlike Mr.Obama who is entitled to re-election, a non-candidate P-Noy — who is on the third of his six-year term in office — is still obviously on campaign mode.