Comelec canvass delayed
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will not be able to proclaim the winners in the senatorial and party-list elections on its self-imposed deadline of May 26.
Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the poll body expects to complete the canvassing by the first week of June, as it still has to hold special elections in the towns of Bayang, Lumbatan, Madalum, Binidayan, Puales, Sultan Dumalondong, Lumba-Bayabao,
He added that it is only after these special elections that the poll body can hold a new round of special elections in the municipalities of Indanan in Sulu; in three barangays in Akbar and in one barangay in Sumisip, both in Basilan; and Pantar in Lanao del Norte.
The elections in the 13 Lanao del Sur towns have been declared a failure after the teachers on poll duty refused to convene into Boards of Election Inspectors (BEIs) and seven Comelec election inspectors went missing on election day.
The Comelec had originally planned to hold the special elections in Lanao del Sur on May 25, which is a Friday, a prayer day for Muslims. It was rescheduled for the following day.
The poll body had created a task force to determine why the election officers were absent last May 14 and why there had been a recurring postponement of elections in Lanao del Sur.
In Barira, the election was postponed after some female supporters of re-electionist Mayor Alex Tomawis sat on the ballot boxes. Muslim policemen, prohibited by Islam from touching women who are not their wives, were unable to get the ballot boxes.
In Pantar, on the other hand, the list of voters was found to have been padded, prompting the Comelec to reset the polls.
In Sulu and Basilan, questions about security caused the postponement of the polls.
Sarmiento said he would fly to Lanao del Sur on Thursday together with an advance team of special election officers. Sarmiento was at the Comelec national canvassing at the Philippine International Convention Center yesterday.
The special election officers are under instruction to take over in case the local election inspectors and the BEIs refuse to do their election duties.
He said the Comelec had already requested the military to augment its forces in Lanao del Sur to keep peace and order during the special elections.
The Comelec estimates some 100,000 votes to be cast in this province, enough to affect the bottom rungs of the 12 winning senators.
No bad feeling
The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) doesn’t mind seeing its quick count being overtaken by Comelec’s official canvassing.
“This is good because it shows that Comelec is getting more efficient now. We are not in a race anyway. We are doing a parallel count, and the term quick count is just a brand,” Namfrel secretary general Eric Alvia said.
He said the results of Comelec’s canvassing of senatorial votes matched Namfrel’s own tally in terms of ranking.
In partial results of both the Namfrel and Comelec tallies, Genuine Opposition bet Loren Legarda remains on top of the senatorial race. As of 4:28 p.m. yesterday, Namfrel tally showed she had 7,119,321 votes while Comelec tally as of 11:45 am showed she had 7,004,503 votes.
The only difference in the ranking was in the 12th place, which was occupied by GO bet Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III in the Namfrel tally and Team Unity bet Ralph Recto in Comelec’s.
Alvia maintained that the pace of Namfrel’s quick count for the recent elections was still faster than in the 2004 presidential election. “On our sixth day, we now have 70 percent of the election returns and would be releasing 46 percent. In 2004, we only had 40 percent in the same period.”
Namfrel officials expect to complete their operations on Thursday. They said they were targeting 100 percent collection of ERs, considering the help of thousands of volunteers from the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace.
Namfrel is using a “first in, first out” processing of data, as in previous elections. He said such a system aims to deflect accusations of “trending” in the counting of votes.
More irregularities
Poll watchdog Kontra Daya accused the Comelec yesterday of failing to “dismantle the structural system and conditions encouraging wholesale fraud.”
“At the most, it showed complicity with blatant acts of fraud and other violations of the Election Code,” Kontra Daya said.
The group decried the disenfranchisement of up to 100,000 voters for which “there has been no satisfactory explanation from the Comelec.”
“In our dialogue with the Comelec as early as Feb. 27, we already called on the poll body to release the voters’ list and precinct assignments early enough,” it said. “(Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos promised that the list would be released by March but this was not done.”
Kontra Daya also found disturbing the case of Genuine Opposition senatorial bet Alan Peter Cayetano who is “turning out to be a victim of electoral sabotage courtesy of the Comelec.”
The group added that the poll body’s failure to immediately resolve the disqualification case against “obvious nuisance” candidate Joselito Pepito Cayetano had greatly harmed Alan’s chances in the polls.
The group also assailed Comelec for “resisting citizens’ demands for the investigation or reassignment to less sensitive positions of elections officials implicated in the Garci tapes.”
“In fact, elections official Rey Sumalipao who had been implicated in the Garci tapes was promoted,” the report stated.
Sumalipao is now the provincial election supervisor for Lanao del Sur where a failure of elections had been declared in 13 towns and a few barangays.
Kontra Daya said there was also something sinister about the pro-administration Team Unity’s 12-0 victory in Maguindanao.
“We are disturbed that such ‘sweeps’ are declared alongside the ‘failure of elections’. Violence is often cited as the reason for the failure of elections in Mindanao. Kontra Daya believes that the violent and chaotic situation in key areas such as Lanao del Sur is being exploited by operators of electoral fraud,” the report stated.
Kontra Daya expressed concern that the delay in Mindanao elections was intended “to allow extra time for ‘special operators’ to pad votes and provide a sweep for all administration candidates in Mindanao in the hope of increasing their electoral chances in the national count.”
It also lamented that the poll body failed or refused to investigate the 22 party-list groups affiliated with Malacañang and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“Inaction appears to be the standard response of the Comelec to all demands for reforms and rectification,” Kontra Daya added.
Automate it
Sen. Richard Gordon again called for the automation of elections yesterday after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) failed to proclaim the winners in the senatorial race a week after the elections.
“We have a very antiquated system, one that creates and promotes a perception of massive cheating, a culture that creates and fosters electoral violence, vote-buying and disenfranchisement of voters. Enough is enough,” he said.
Gordon, Senate committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws chairman, blamed the slow count on Comelec officials who refused to work for the automation of elections.
“I have always said that we should fix the problem and not the blame,” he said.
“But the inaction of the Comelec on automation, its refusal to even bother to try it in two provinces as mandated by law, has cost us the credibility of yet another election.”
Gordon said automation can be applied during the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in October this year.
“On October 29 this year, we are holding the synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections,” he said.
“Comelec has a good seven months to prepare for it. Implement RA 9369. Elections are the bedrock of our democracy.
“A clean, fair and honest election will foster unity among our people. Automation will restore the confidence of our people and the international community in our country.”
Gordon said automated election is a worthy and apt solution to our “messy” electoral process.
“RA 9369, as proposed, requires a verifiable paper audit trail and allows electronic transmission,” he said.
“Within a couple of hours, we will know the results. This will obliterate the tedious and dangerous process of lugging around ballot boxes.
“It eliminates manual mistakes and propagation of dagdag bawas. The old system requires too much paperwork. It taxes our people and institutionalizes vote-buying.”
After Congress passed the Automated Elections Law last January, the Comelec adamantly refused to automate the May 14 elections allegedly for lack of time and resources, Gordon said.
Exactly one week after the May 14 elections, the counting has not yet been concluded.
Media reports are flooded with allegations of election violence and massive cheating. — Edu Punay, Christina Mendez, Joyce Segui
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