The 2010 automated Election, being the first in our history, has tickled the curiosity of most Filipinos. It attracted both the active voters and the apathetics, and even people with disabilities; they all tried their bests to locate their respective precincts and excitedly queued amid the scorching heat. Some however went home frustrated after realizing that their names were delisted or deactivated due to failure to vote during the previous election. My mother and my elder brother are a first-hand experience in this kind of election problem. My brother even spent hours in the line before knowing that he is not in the master list of voters.
It may be asked why he lined up in the first place without first verifying his name which is supposedly the proper procedure. Actually, the truth of the matter is that, upon entering the school where our precinct is located, we noticed a number of clustered PPCRV volunteers who obviously were there to assist the public in locating their respective precincts. Without noticing the signs for respective barangays as they are written so small that an average adult might not even notice, we assumed that all PPCRV groups have the complete master list, and so we verified our names. The volunteer can't find our names, then asked what barangay do we belong. After hearing our answer he suddenly commented in a high voice and in an embarrassing manner that we are in the wrong place as we have to find the right barangay. Embarrassed by the sudden outburst, we lost our temper and we yelled back a her and even lashing at her as she is still uttering annoying comments. Irked, we disregarded the verifying and rather searched our familiar neighbors and there we just lined up.
As observed by many, the retrieval or counting was indeed fast. After casting my vote, and upon reaching home, news about partial unofficial results were already being reported in almost every tv station. After 7 pm, which is the official cut-off time for casting of votes, almost all precincts have already either transmitted the results or at least finished conducting the voting. I was so excited that my eyes were almost glued on the tv, as every minute modifies the numbers of the partial unofficial result. By 12 midnight, the votes counted were already substantial. It was really both amazing and exciting.
Just a day after, some national candidates, especially in the presidential race, are already conceding to leading candidates. This is far different from our previous elections -- and I thought this thing only happens in foreign elections. In the past, objections and protests are prevalent and are the common marks of Philippine Election, and concessions are but rather a boxing fight’s vocabulary.
Another observation is that, the automated election incrementally decreased the election related violence. The elimination of manual counting also reduced the chance of losing candidate’s tactic of disturbing the counting or instigating violence with the end in view of getting a declaration of failure of election, and hoping (or manipulating?) later to win in the special election. This also rendered obsolete the modus operandi of ballot snatching while on its way to the city or municipal hall. All that is left for them now is to buy votes.
First among the election problems, both old and new, is the turtle-moving queue where some voters spent long hours before finally casting their votes. I, for one, started to fall in line around 11 am, and it was already 4 pm when I finally cast my vote. This is properly attributable either to lack of PCOS machine or to small classroom space. The COMELEC should have added extra PCOS machines to high volume clusters, or at least used a bigger area and increased the number of simultaneous voters.
Second is the perennial problem of missing names in the voter’s list or deactivated names for failure to vote last election. An announcement was allegedly made for them to reactivate during the registration period. But the fact that still many of them were unaware of it means that the information campaign was not sufficient if not ineffective. My brother who is a lawyer is one of those who never heard of that fact. An intensive campaign should have been employed.
Third is the failure or malfunctioning of some PCOS machines. This however should be imputed to SMARTMATIC-TIM for being negligent in ensuring the quality of the machines before being deployed to different parts of the country.
Fourth is vote buying: another classic poll cheating strategy. This is one of the areas where the impact of the automation is very negative. This is because the automation rendered the manual counting-associated violations obsolete but on the other it just shifted the black ops funds into this kind of violation. But unlike others, the blame here also extends to voters.
Fifth, the high-tech rigging by switching of flash drives, intercepting transmitted data, etc. These allegations arose only after almost all votes have been counted and local winning candidates have been proclaimed.
These are just some of the major problems observed, and certainly, there are a lot more. But on the positive side, at least we have significantly improved compared to past election in terms of the speed of counting which effectively lessened poll-related violence and some cheatings consistently identified with manual counting.
It may be asked why he lined up in the first place without first verifying his name which is supposedly the proper procedure. Actually, the truth of the matter is that, upon entering the school where our precinct is located, we noticed a number of clustered PPCRV volunteers who obviously were there to assist the public in locating their respective precincts. Without noticing the signs for respective barangays as they are written so small that an average adult might not even notice, we assumed that all PPCRV groups have the complete master list, and so we verified our names. The volunteer can't find our names, then asked what barangay do we belong. After hearing our answer he suddenly commented in a high voice and in an embarrassing manner that we are in the wrong place as we have to find the right barangay. Embarrassed by the sudden outburst, we lost our temper and we yelled back a her and even lashing at her as she is still uttering annoying comments. Irked, we disregarded the verifying and rather searched our familiar neighbors and there we just lined up.
As observed by many, the retrieval or counting was indeed fast. After casting my vote, and upon reaching home, news about partial unofficial results were already being reported in almost every tv station. After 7 pm, which is the official cut-off time for casting of votes, almost all precincts have already either transmitted the results or at least finished conducting the voting. I was so excited that my eyes were almost glued on the tv, as every minute modifies the numbers of the partial unofficial result. By 12 midnight, the votes counted were already substantial. It was really both amazing and exciting.
Just a day after, some national candidates, especially in the presidential race, are already conceding to leading candidates. This is far different from our previous elections -- and I thought this thing only happens in foreign elections. In the past, objections and protests are prevalent and are the common marks of Philippine Election, and concessions are but rather a boxing fight’s vocabulary.
Another observation is that, the automated election incrementally decreased the election related violence. The elimination of manual counting also reduced the chance of losing candidate’s tactic of disturbing the counting or instigating violence with the end in view of getting a declaration of failure of election, and hoping (or manipulating?) later to win in the special election. This also rendered obsolete the modus operandi of ballot snatching while on its way to the city or municipal hall. All that is left for them now is to buy votes.
First among the election problems, both old and new, is the turtle-moving queue where some voters spent long hours before finally casting their votes. I, for one, started to fall in line around 11 am, and it was already 4 pm when I finally cast my vote. This is properly attributable either to lack of PCOS machine or to small classroom space. The COMELEC should have added extra PCOS machines to high volume clusters, or at least used a bigger area and increased the number of simultaneous voters.
Second is the perennial problem of missing names in the voter’s list or deactivated names for failure to vote last election. An announcement was allegedly made for them to reactivate during the registration period. But the fact that still many of them were unaware of it means that the information campaign was not sufficient if not ineffective. My brother who is a lawyer is one of those who never heard of that fact. An intensive campaign should have been employed.
Third is the failure or malfunctioning of some PCOS machines. This however should be imputed to SMARTMATIC-TIM for being negligent in ensuring the quality of the machines before being deployed to different parts of the country.
Fourth is vote buying: another classic poll cheating strategy. This is one of the areas where the impact of the automation is very negative. This is because the automation rendered the manual counting-associated violations obsolete but on the other it just shifted the black ops funds into this kind of violation. But unlike others, the blame here also extends to voters.
Fifth, the high-tech rigging by switching of flash drives, intercepting transmitted data, etc. These allegations arose only after almost all votes have been counted and local winning candidates have been proclaimed.
These are just some of the major problems observed, and certainly, there are a lot more. But on the positive side, at least we have significantly improved compared to past election in terms of the speed of counting which effectively lessened poll-related violence and some cheatings consistently identified with manual counting.
No comments:
Post a Comment