Introduction
Election is an exercise of democracy
wherein the people determine through their votes, individuals who would
represent them in the government. It’s a process guaranteed in our constitution
and such right to vote are vested to each citizen as long as they possess the
qualifications established by law. Election could either make or break a
country as can be reflected in our history and through our past leadership
either in the smallest unit of government in the baranggay or to the highest
position of the land. The constitutional right to suffrage which in turn
enables qualified voters to choose their representatives in government should
do so with a sense of responsibility and awareness for the common good of the
public rather than for the benefit of a single person. As most people say that
taking part in an election is equivalent to taking part in History for
constituted officials as a result of an election would determine what a future
holds for a specific country.
Rules, regulations and laws relating
to the election process is being observe, manage, implemented, enforced and
executed by the Commission Of Election or COMELEC. COMELEC is a constitutional commission
whose power and authority is established and defined under Section 2 of Article
IX-C of the 1987 Constitution. The
past few elections have prompted a call for a reform of the voting system to
reduce the chaos that often ensues on Election Day, Last May 2010 after
tremendous preparation; the Philippines experienced its first Philippine
Automated Elections which was provided by the Philippine Republic Act 9369
known as the “Poll Automation Law”. It gave a fresh glimpse of experience to
the national and local candidates and most of all the voters to see how
automation polls gunned up with more effective and efficient electoral
processes from its casting of voters’ ballots until the canvassing and
proclamation of the winners. But before we dig through further with this newly
introduced concept of an automated election in the Philippines, we need to
further investigate and understand how a manual election works in order to
further appreciate or reject this new concept.
Election Process
Nomination/Filing of Candidacy
COMELEC shall define periods when it
would accept certificate of candidacy of candidates on various electoral posts.
Any person running his candidacy needs to file a sworn certificate of candidacy
in the Office of the Election Officer in cities and municipalities nationwide.
The format of the COCs may be obtained from the Election Officer. Candidate
shall file the certificate of candidacy personally or by his duly authorized
representative. No certificate of candidacy shall be filed or accepted by mail,
telegram or facsimile.
COMELEC shall provide for a
resolution and enforce applicable laws in determining qualified candidates and
disqualify or declare nuisance against unfit and improper candidates. COMELEC
shall announce the names of candidates and their parties contesting the
election.
Election Campaign
COMELEC shall define its rules and
regulations regarding election campaigns by setting dates for its start and end
on the basis of applicable laws. Qualified Candidates and their representative
can start their campaigning on the duly specified date. These activities would
include affixing of posters, talks, distribution of pamphlets, and campaigning
from house to house. Certain campaign restrictions may also be implemented to
establish a fair and equal election.
COMELEC as a constitutional body that
organize, regulate and administer the election process shall have the power to
define the following upon an election campaign:
-
Prohibited
Raising of Funds
-
Allowed/Lawful
expenditures for Philippine campaign
-
Statement
of Contributions and Expenses
Polling
On polling day, qualified registered
voters would cast their votes on specified polling precincts from which they
are assigned. For each precinct a Board of Elections Inspectors (BEI) shall be
responsible for conducting the voting and counting of votes for a precinct at the
polling station. It shall compose of three people: a chairman, a poll clerk,
and a member.
Before Polling begins the BEI should
arrive with the polling materials at the polling place at least one hour before
the commencement of polling. The polling place should open promptly at 7:00 AM,
and remain open continuously until 3:00 PM. Voters should then be allowed into
the polling place one by one, and should inform the Chairman of their name and
address, who will then look up their name in the Voter’s List. The voter is
then required to sign next to their name on the EDCVL. The Chairman will
authenticate the ballot by signing the back, then fold the ballot in such a
manner that its face will be covered but the detachable coupon bearing the
serial number is visible, then direct the voter to an empty desk. The voter,
upon receiving his folded ballot, will go to an empty desk. Only one voter is
allowed at a desk at one time and immediately begins marking his ballot.
After filling up the ballot, the
voter re-folds the ballot and returns it to the Chairman. The Chairman confirms
the serial number on the ballot is the same as that recorded for the voter,
then requires the voter to press their right thumb into the inkpad, and then
put a thumbprint on the detachable stub and on the corresponding space on the
EDCVL. The Chairman will then sign in the appropriate space on the EDCVL.
The third member of the BEI will then
apply a drop of indelible stain ink at the base and extending to the cuticle of
the right index fingernail of the voter. The Chairman will then detach the
coupon and put it in the compartment for spoiled ballots, and return the ballot
to the voter, who will put the ballot in the compartment for valid ballots.
The polling place will remain open
until three o'clock in the afternoon of Election Day. If at three o'clock there
are still voters waiting to vote, their names will be recorded by the poll
clerk and they will be allowed to vote. No one who arrives after 3:00 PM will
be allowed to vote. When all remaining voters have cast their ballots the
polling place will close. The Chairman will first record the quantity of unused
ballots and their serial numbers, and will then, in the presence of the members
of the BEI and watchers, tear the unused ballots without removing the stubs and
detachable coupons. This would serve as a counter measure to prevent election
fraud using the unused ballots.
Counting Votes
The Counting of Votes serves as the
most tedious process of all the steps. This is conducted after the polling
stating has closed and the last qualified voter has cast his vote. Counting of
votes will be conducted in public and without interruption. Appointed watchers
for political parties and candidates and accredited nonpartisan observers have
the right to observe all aspects of the counting process, including setting up
for the count, the reading of ballots, and the marking of votes on the tally
board and polling returns. Watchers can read the votes in the ballots but not
touch any election document
A Reconciliation process is also done
manually to ensure that the total number of ballots received is the same as the
number of votes cast and the unused ballots.
The conduct of counting of votes is
done by the BEI unfolding the ballots and arranges them in piles. The Chairman
of the BEI shall take the ballots of the first pile one by one and read the
names of the candidates voted for and the offices for which they were voted as
well as the name of the party, organization or coalition voted for under the
party-list system, in the order in which they appear. As each level of election
is read, the Chairman will make a determination if the vote is valid. As each
vote is read out, it will be recorded on the election returns and the tally
board. After finishing the first pile of ballots the total for each candidate
will be written on the election returns and tally sheet after the last tally
mark. The same procedure shall be observed for the second and third pile until
all the votes are counted.
Announcement
of Election Results
After all the ballots have been read
and counted the BEI will write in words and figures the total votes obtained by
each candidate by each party, organization or coalition participating under the
party-list system, in the designated space on the Election Returns and in the
Tally Board. The Chairman will then announce the number of votes received by
each candidate and the corresponding office.
At this point the Poll Clerk should
take the Election Return to the Tally Board and invite the watchers to confirm
that the results recorded on the Tally Board are the same as those recorded on
the Election Return. The BEI members will then sign and thumbprint the forms,
and the watchers of the six principal political parties will also be asked to
sign and thumb mark the returns. The BEI will then give copies the Election
Returns to the representative of the dominant majority party, the dominant
minority party, and of the COMELEC citizen's arm.
Manual Elections
Elections in the Philippines have
long been branded as dirty and violent. Election law violations have already
become the norm during such occasion. Rampant vote buying, flying and ghost
voters, election frauds, violence, coercion, duress and intimidation are
rampant and plaque most parts of the country specially those in the province
and far flank areas wherein civil unrest usually does occur.
Typically such concerns and issues occur
during the Election Polling and Counting of Votes. These two steps in the
election process are considered to be the most crucial part of the election
process and are mostly done manually by individuals assigned in the polling
precincts. In any process human intervention are always prone to human errors
and concerns thus resulting to a deviation to an improper or incorrect output
or result. People with evil intention usually takes advantage of this to
further their own personal and selfish interest without giving regards to the
process and specially to the sovereign will of the people. In the end it would
be the country and the people who would bear the burden of the mistakes and
evil acts of the few.
Recent elections have prompted calls
for a reform of the voting system, on 2010 Election the COMELEC has implemented and IT
automated election through the use of PCOS (Precinct Count Optical System) Machines. This was provided
by Republic Act 9369, to encourage transparency, credibility, fairness,
and accuracy of elections.
The implementation was not perfect and has its own issues and problems but in
the end the public was satisfied with the results.
The implementation of an automated
election is a ground breaking improvement compared to our previous process. As
any other process it has its own benefit and disadvantage which we would be
weigh-in in the next part.
Automated
Elections
Introduction
As early as 1992, the Commission on
Elections (COMELEC) has identified the modernization of the electoral process
as a goal of what was called Operation MODEX (MODEX for “Modernization and
Excellence”) but no significant and concrete plan and implementation were
established yet. In 1997, RA 8436 was passed into law, authorizing COMELEC to
implement an automated system in the May 1998 elections, and in subsequent
national and local elections. However due to lack of preparation, time and
funding, it has led to the use of the automated process only in several
provinces.
In 2007, RA 9369, amending RA 8436,
was passed “to encourage transparency, credibility, fairness, and accuracy of
elections.” An automated electoral process on a nationwide scale was first enforced
in the 2010 elections. During the course of the election Four hundred sixty-five
vote counting machines were reported as malfunctional, but 75,882 machines
worked smoothly. Compared to past elections where the winners were known after
weeks or months, local winners were determined in a few hours, while half of
the national winners were known after a day. Regardless of the problems
encountered before and after the election, most people are satisfied with the
election process and the voting results. The international community has also
noticed and commended the Philippines for its successful implementation of an
automated election.
Improved Election Process
The automation on the election
process only deals with the process of counting of votes and the declaration of
election results. In view with this, it should not be considered as a fully
automated election since the automation wasn’t from end to end, meaning from
the beginning or start of the process (Polling) until the end (Announcement of
Results). This should only be considered as a partial automation of the
election process from which only two out of the 5 process was automated and the
paper ballot has not yet been eliminated.
Through the implementation of the
PCOS machines which reads an electronically watermarked ballot to identify its
validity, the process of vote counting would be done automatically by the
machine by making a tally if the shaded oval that represents a vote against an
elective official. The PCOS has an internal memory that stores election results
and audit logs. Through this the result of the election can be determined just
hours in a local election and a few days in the national election compared a
manual election wherein results are determined by several weeks.
The biggest impact in my view on the
implementation of this automated process is the effect it would have on the Election
related violence during the whole election process, since the removal of manual
intervention of the last two processes in election is now done automatically
performed, thus giving less opportunity and reduction on the possibility of an
election crime commission.
Below are data from the PNP in
relation to incidents of poll related violence recorded from the past 5
elections.
Election Related Violence
|
Election Year
|
Number Of Incidents
|
Percentage
|
2001
|
269
|
0.00%
|
2004
|
249
|
7.43%
|
2007
|
229
|
14.87%
|
2010
|
176
|
34.57%
|
2013
|
81
|
69.89%
|
Basing from the table and charts
above a drastic decrease on Election related violence since the implementation
of the automated election process since 2010, there was a 34.57% decrease
compared to 2001 and it was twice as low as compared to 2007. The lowest number
of decrease was in 2013 but we had to consider the type of election conducted
back then compared to 2010 which was a national election.
Aside from the benefit of getting an
election result faster and a reduction of election related violence, the
implementation of a so called automated election also has its own disadvantages
but what we need to keep in mind and what we need to consider is to weigh
whether this disadvantages outweigh the benefits from this newly improved
process.
Concerns and Lessons
Legality
The transition from manual
to automated elections is a long process. Its constitutionality and validity
are still being questioned for there were some legal provisions criticized as
inconsistent with automated elections or too ambiguous but most stakeholders
agree that there is a solid legal foundation upon which to conduct automated
elections.
This is something to
be expected for an individual through its nature in general always tries to
reject change. People in general are afraid of change for it is a deviation
from what they are accustomed to, but in order for us to survive we need to
adopt and embrace change for it is the only way that we could evolve and
improve. We should treat it as a necessity rather than an option for it enables
us to move forward and improve ourselves not only as individuals but as a
country as a whole. Keep in mind necessity is the mother of all inventions.
Accountability
In-house capability
is crucial for ensuring accountability of the exercise. The COMELEC faced an
enormous challenge to remain in control of the relationship with the vendor,
Smartmatic. This was due in part to the COMELEC staff not yet building the
in-house capacity to manage the vendor. The COMELEC should create its own body
of experts in-house and not rely on the vendor to ensure accountability in
every step of the process. This would also remove the concept of
indispensability on the part of the vendor thus diminishing the possibility of
abuse and demands as such.
The accountability of
the whole automation process could have been enhanced significantly, had the
COMELEC properly implemented post-audit mechanisms. Implementation of a
sufficient post-audit mechanism would allow for a credible check on official
election results. This would also take away concerns of the PCOS machine generating
an incorrect tally of votes.
IT groups and
election observation groups did not coordinate well enough to take advantage of
each other’s comparative strengths, knowledge and networks. Better coordination
and cooperation among civil society actors could have helped pair IT expertise
with election monitoring experience and methodologies to more effective
election observation efforts. The accountability of an election does not only
rest as a responsibility of the government but by all citizenry. This would ensure a fair, peaceful and free
election.
Security and Secrecy
Ensuring the security
of electoral processes was a significant challenge during the transition to
automated elections. While a range of security features were initially planned,
several of these features were not implemented or did not function as planned.
Several election observation groups and IT experts alleged that the range of
security vulnerabilities exposed the system to possible manipulation, fraud and
failure. In most cases, failure to implement planned security features was
attributed to a lack of sufficient time. This is something that needs to be
addressed as soon as possible for system vulnerability especially in regards to
security could either make or break a system. The automated election was
instituted to solve problems not to create new ones.
Secrecy of the
ballot, with respect to the PCOS machines, was not raised as a concern during
the 2010 elections. Some critics argued voters should have been able to confirm
how the machine recorded their votes by having the machine briefly flash on its
screen the voters’ choices as recorded, but others contended it could have
compromised secrecy. This should not be an issue at all as long as there is an
assurance that what was reflected on the ballot should be reflected on the
system.
Transparency
While the COMELEC
appeared to make a genuine attempt to be transparent during some parts of the
electoral process, this was not always sufficient to meet international best
practice and to gain the trust and confidence of key stakeholders. In some
cases, transparency was sacrificed for expediency. In other cases, critics
allege that transparency was restricted because of sensitivity to criticism
during what was a very challenging transition to automated elections
nationwide. The issue of the source code
always does arise when the transparency issue is raised for experts in the
field of IT are skeptic on how the machine counts the vote. Whether it does it
correctly as how it was reflected n the paper ballot or does it do other
processing that could affect the counting due to a glitch in the code.
Sustainability
Cost considerations
are a major challenge for ensuring sustainability of automated elections.
Despite extensive consideration of the full costs of moving toward automation,
some challenges did emerge. With the budget allotted, the COMELEC could not
lease enough machines to maintain even a fraction of the number of precincts in
previous elections. This led to the need to cluster precincts, which was cited
as a major cause of the long lines on Election Day. Estimation and
allocation of appropriate budget should be emphasize during the general
appropriation in order to further improve and sustain this newly improved
process.
Several people interviewed
emphasized how much more complex and challenging the automated elections were
to conduct compared to manual elections. They noted that electronic
technologies should not be seen as a way to address capacity shortcomings in
managing elections. The 2010 experience showed the challenges of implementing
electronic technologies without having enough leadership and staff with IT
expertise and experience, as well as a high degree of project management
capacity. This should have been addressed by the government by educating
the voters on the new process of election. We should always remember that
Ignorance is bliss and misinformation is a result of miscommunication.
Trust
The COMELEC faced a
significant challenge in building trust in the election processes. Following
the elections, however, overall trust and satisfaction with the elections
increased significantly. Many attributed this boost in trust as a result of the
speediness of the results and the absence of reported widespread Election Day
failures. The fact that more than 90 percent of precinct results were reported
on election night was viewed as a significant achievement, and the presidential
election results reflected the exit polls almost exactly. These factors helped
bolster voter trust and mitigated the potential for post-election violence.
However, the lack of
transparency of certain aspects of the process reduced trust among election
observation groups and IT experts, as well as some parties and candidates.
Several interviewees
noted the increased trust in 2010 was partially due to the novelty and pride
associated with the Philippines conducting the first nationwide automated
elections and the wide margin of victory in the presidential race, which
mitigated potential complaints. They cautioned that this trust may not be
sustained unless significant efforts are made to address problems and security
vulnerabilities in the succeeding elections.
Conclusion
There is no such thing as a perfect
system or process. There would always be issues, problems or concerns but what
is important is that the benefit and advantage received should always be
greater than the disadvantage suffered. The main purpose of automating a
process is to make the things easier, lighter, reliable and cheaper in the long
run but the result would then be otherwise then there would be no point making
such change.
In the implementation of the
automated election in the Philippines the benefit reaped indeed has outweighed
the concerns and issues encountered. As to any process what it needs are
responsible and competent people to have It sustained and maintained, thus
ensuring a more reliable, peaceful and free election. It is the first step that
the government needs in order to gain the trust and confidence of the people
and to believe again on the system that their will are preserved and heard,
through the protection of their vote and ensuring that their votes are
accounted for in every election. For every vote does count and every citizen
matters and that election as a sacred process should be respected and properly
observed.
