The votes to die for

As of the last count of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), they have on official record a total of 52,014,648 registered voters all over the country. This number, about more than a half of our country’s total population, represents those qualified to cast their votes in the May 13 national and local elections.

According to Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, this total number of voters is “so far the highest in Philippine history” since our country started this democratic exercise of electing our local and national government officials.

Also in our past three elections, there have been a notable high turnout of voters even during midterm polls like what we are having this May. In the last midterm elections in May 2007, there was 73.1 percent voter turnout. It was also the last time that we had the manual system of voting and counting ballots.

Based on Comelec records, voter turnout during a presidential election is usually high. The voter turnout in the May 2004 presidential election was recorded at 76.9 percent. This was the last presidential election using the manual system where the victory of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was tainted by the “Hello, Garci” poll fraud scandal.

Hounded by the charges of “lying, cheating, and stealing” against her, ex-President Arroyo tried to redeem herself by modernizing the country’s manual elections that were prone to tampering and other forms of fraud. This is not to mention the use of “guns, goons and gold,” or the 3 G’s that candidates resort to in ensuring their victory.

The voter turnout went down a little lower to 74.9 percent when we had our first automated election system using precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines. President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III became the first President installed in office through this maiden use of an automated voting and counting system in the Philippines. P-Noy, who just turned 53 years old last Friday, also happens to be the first bachelor President of the country.

We are again using the same PCOS machines for this year’s midterm elections. The Comelec conducted “mock polls” last Feb. 2 to test some of the PCOS machines in 20 voting centers/schools in 10 selected areas in Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.

At the end of the test-run marred by “glitches” here and there, Brillantes concluded that the Comelec is ready to address any situation that may arise on election day. The Comelec chief pointed out that the poll body got a preview of possible problems that may erupt and compromise the election results.

He disclosed that the Comelec is now addressing these “weaknesses” detected at this early stage to correct them and strengthen the automated election system. Brillantes, however, was less than candid on the possible complications of the legal problems faced by Smartmatic International Corp., which supplied these PCOS machines to the Comelec.

Two months after the poll body bought from Smartmatic some 81,200 PCOS machines used in the 2010 elections, the Comelec contractor had a falling out with Dominion which owns the system used to operate the machines. Dominion had terminated its licensing agreement with Smartmatic, prompting the latter to sue the former in court in Florida.

As a result of this, Dominion had refused to allow the certification of the PCOS source code by SLI Global Solutions, which was contracted by Comelec to evaluate the source code. This forced the Comelec to just use the 2011 source code that it prepared for the ARMM elections that were postponed. Brillantes kept reassuring PCOS critics that the eight unimplemented enhancements are minor and would not affect the credibility and reliability of the May polls.

In the meantime, there is no stopping the candidates vying in the midterm elections to go full blast in their campaign. Many of these candidates, especially the re-electionist senators and congressmen and other incumbent officials, have long been on a roll.

Those who can start campaigning tomorrow are the candidates for senators and the party-list system. The campaign period for those running in local elections was originally set to start March 29. However, because this falls on Good Friday, the Comelec moved this to March 30 instead. Campaigning for both national and local elections ends on May 11.

Up for grabs in the May 13 polls are 33 Senate seats; 58 party-list representatives; 233 congressional seats; 80 each for governor and vice governor; 766 Sangguniang Panlalawigan members; 143 city and vice mayors; 1,598 Sangguniang Panglungsod members; 1,491 each for municipal mayors and vice mayors; and 11,932 Sangguniang Bayan members.

Synchronized with the coming midterm polls are the regional elections for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), involving one seat each for governor and vice governor and slots for 24 assemblymen.

Historically, politics-related violence has always been a bane to the conduct of elections here, especially in the countryside. Senatorial candidates engaged each other in a word war but it’s more non-lethal in character assassinations. At the local level, candidates even pay for their dear lives, as rivalries are more intense and turn deadly, literally.

The Comelec earlier had tagged as poll “hotspots” the provinces of Abra, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Cagayan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Batangas, Masbate, Samar, Misamis Occidental, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Cavite, and Basilan.

Politics is one of the motives being pursued by investigators in the Feb. 4 foiled ambush of re-electionist Mayor Salvador Pillos of Marcos town, Ilocos Norte by motorcycle-riding gunmen. He survived the attack with bullet scrapes on his arm and foot. Marcos town had a total of 10,457 registered voters in the 2010 elections.

Pillos is more fortunate than the woman mayor of the town of Maconacon in Isabela, Erlinda Mora Domingo, who was gunned down last Jan. 22. The re-electionist mayor was shot at close range while getting out of her vehicle outside an apartelle in Quezon City where she was pursued by her assassins. Her town has only 2,891 registered voters. Sadly, these are the votes she died for.