PEOPLE ERROR IS WORST ELECTION ERROR

The Philippine Star
04/26/10

The printing presses are now quiet after 50.7 million ballots for the country’s first automated elections have been completed, and currently are being delivered, together with ballot boxes and the still-controversial precinct count optical scan or PCOS machines, to more than 80,000 destinations across the country.

More than 250,000 teachers have been trained to handle the counting machines as well as assist voters in casting their votes come May 10. If we count Andres Bonifacio who declared himself as president after establishing a de facto revolutionary government in 1896, the Philippines will have its 18th chief executive this year.

If things turn out well, 2010 will be another milestone in the country’s roadmap towards self-determination. The election process, which started in 1946, was successfully conducted then with the declaration of Manuel Roxas as president.

Presidential superheroes

Philippine elections have created their own superheroes since then. In 1949, Elpidio Quirino received the people’s mandate to rule government. In 1953, the much-loved Ramon Magsaysay bewitched the nation and earned the trust to get voted as the “man of the masses.”

Senior citizens today will still remember Carlos P. Garcia and his running mate, Diosdado Macapagal, who would in the next term succeed as the fourth president to be elected by nationwide polling.

Today’s generation may have vague memories of Marcos’ long reign, but they surely remember Cory Aquino and succeeding presidents Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Ejercito Estrada and the incumbent, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Voting in the Philippines has always been festive, and even if the election results are marred in varying degrees by vote-buying, ballot-box switching, dagdag-bawas, coercion and violence, the voice of the people usually comes across.

But in cases when there is a serious breach of confidence in the electoral process, as what happened during the snap elections of 1986 when Ferdinand Marcos, who was first elected in 1969, tried to extend his presidential term by another six years, Filipinos took to the streets.

Underscoring need for voter education

Knowing that the election turnout in the Philippines is among the highest in the world (between 80 percent to 85 percent) should give our many non-government organizations organized for the electoral process with a lot of work in terms of educating voters on the automated poll system first and foremost.

To date, with less than a fortnight to go before Filipinos troop to the precincts, there is still more noise that mainly contradicts how the Comelec should conduct its business.

And now that the Comelec has reiterated its confidence in a random manual audit and with finality ruled against a partial parallel manual count as espoused by the Makati Business Club, perhaps all focus of the private sector should turn to making sure that our voters understand what to do with their new ballot forms and to vote wisely.

The chances for a great number of invalidated ballots is high since a PCOS machine will not accept forms that show a marked degree of nonconformance to shading rules, i.e., filling in other marks (an x, check mark, dot, dash, partial shading, shading outside the oval) on the oval beside the candidate’s name, or erasures, or markings and/or scratches on the security marks located on the paper’s edge.

Similarly, votes for certain candidate positions may be nullified when there are more shaded ovals than acceptable, i.e., a voter chooses and shades two ovals for the presidential position, or – which could be the most prevalent – shading more than 12 senatorial bets, thus invalidating all votes cast for the senatorial line-up.

While there is no ruling by the Comelec on what would happen should there be a high rate of invalidation or nullified votes for certain candidate positions, this could create a serious crisis of confidence given Filipinos’ high regard for the electoral process.

A lot of work to do – and not just by Comelec

More than ever, organizations like Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, National Movement for Free Elections, and the other various media outfits involved should work hard to make sure that numbers of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) in every precinct will have adequate support in educating voters on what to do when they receive their computer-readable ballot forms.

Given the fact that two-thirds of the 40 million Filipinos who will be expected to go to the polls on May 10 are voters who have had only elementary or high school education, there is a big possibility they are not computer literate or are even technology averse.

School teachers assigned to man the precincts will be swamped 1:100 by such voters. And this is assuming that each school teacher on election duty will also be competently qualified to assist those who have had no computer literacy exposure in their lives.

Sure, the Comelec’s television and radio advertisements are amusing vehicles of what voters should watch out for come May 10, although it’s difficult to say whether the campaign’s theme song “Bilog na Hugis Itlog” by the famous Sex Bomb Dancers is really an effective communications tool. But no mistaking, the recall is high.

Still, it’s a totally different story on election day when a voter’s confidence is put on the line when faced with the overwhelming unfamiliar. Thus, when his vote is outright rejected by the PCOS machine after he has literally sweated to understand and fill in the new ballot form, expect outrage.

Keeping democracy alive 

More than 110 years after the Katipuneros seized power from the Spaniards, Filipinos are still fine-tuning democratic institutional processes that have helped pave the way for greater freedom, first from foreign colonial masters, and now from self-serving individuals.

Elections 2010 could be a high point in that long struggle, and automated elections could play an important role in it. Or it could be that big dud that would earn the new decade a place in political notoriety, at least until the next presidential elections. Either way, much will depend on all of us.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, SalcedoVillage, 1227 MakatiCity. Or e-mail me at reydgamboa@yahoo.com. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net