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USTADZ
Esmael Ibrahim, a religious leader from the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), is not too excited
about his people tasting the first automated elections
in the country.
While
the sight of computer machines during poll exercise is
not so new for the people of the region, voters in the
ARMM have yet to experience the real thing.
Computerized elections were tried in the ARMM twice
during the 1996 regional polls and in the 1998 national
exercise, which were both described as dismal failures.
Forty-two optical mark reader (OMR) machines were
provided by the American Information Systems (AIS) for
what was supposed to be the first poll automation in
Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in 1996.
Each machine is said to cost $15,000.
The
machines failed in terms of speed and accuracy.
More
machines bought
Two
years later, when the country was to elect new national
and local leaders, the government purchased 26 more
machines from AIS, in addition to the 42 pieces of
equipment bought earlier for the ARMM. While the
machines were upgraded to suit the requirements of
Republic Act 8436, or the Electoral Modernization Act,
some of the machines rejected preprinted ballots.
As a
result, ballots from Sulu were recounted in Manila
because of an error in printing by the National Printing
Office. Errors in ballot printing also drove several
municipalities in Lanao del Sur to revert to manual
counting.
Camera
fiasco
In 1999
the Commission on Elections (Comelec) purchased 500
Polaroid cameras from Photokina Marketing Corp. through
a negotiated contract. The Comelec paid P10,900 for each
camera and a million film sheets, or a total of P47
million for the whole ID project.
About
1,200 Polaroid cameras were used to take pictures of
ARMM voters. Unfortunately, 70 percent of the
photographs were damaged while 1.2 million more were
repeated after election officers found out that the IDs
did not contain the signature of the poll body’s
commissioner in charge. To make matters worse, 500 of
the cameras were lost after an election officer failed
to return them. Meanwhile, the rest of the equipment
were reduced to ashes as the Comelec’s head office in
Intramuros burned down in March 2007.
“Our
people are not yet ready for automation,” admitted
Ibrahim, an official of the Assembly of Darul Ifta of
the Philippines.
Ibrahim
said automating the ARMM elections, given three months
of voters’ education, may not work right now in the
region, which has the highest illiteracy rate in the
country.
The 2003
functional literacy survey of the National Statistics
Office places the illiteracy rate in the Muslim region
at 30 percent among persons aged 10 to 64 years old.
Ibrahim
said illiteracy in the ARMM is worst in Sulu, with 40
percent of its people unlettered. Observers have been
saying this illiteracy rate, intertwined with poverty
and marginalization, accounts for the recurring
peace-and-order problems—fertile ground for extremists
like the Abu Sayyaf.
Given
this low level of literacy, Ibrahim thinks that voters’
education should be done at least six months prior to
election day to cover all areas in the region.
“The
preparation is very limited. We should have more time,”
he said, adding that while automating the polls would
finally avoid massive vote-rigging in many of the
region’s areas, voters are not yet ready to adjust to a
new technology.
Split automation
Ramon
Casiple, head of the Institute of Political and
Electoral Reform (IPER), said the Comelec’s technical
advisory council has proposed that the poll body use the
direct recording electronic (DRE) technology in two
urbanized cities in the ARMM after taking into account
the issue of literacy.
The
Comelec was pursuing two technologies to be used in the
polls in the region—the DRE and the OMR. The DRE, a
touch-screen voting technology, is scheduled for
Maguindanao, while the OMR will be used in the rest of
the other five provinces composing the ARMM.
“The
technical advisory council proposed that the DRE be used
in Isabela and Marawi, being urbanized areas, and since
the people have yet to have in experience this system.
But we were prevailed upon by the Comelec’s directors,”
Casiple told the BusinessMirror.
Casiple
added that while the DRE does not require writing and
uses a touch pad where the pictures of candidates are
placed, the images are not clear and big enough for
clear viewing.
Vince
Dizon, spokesman for Smartmatic-Sahi Joint Venture, the
company that is providing DRE in Maguindanao, said they
will try to enlarge the pictures of candidates, but
added that the system has a limit in image size or it
will not recognize entries made on the voting pad.
Results
in 36 hours?
Dizon
expressed confidence that the firm, a South
American-based company, would be able to deliver the
results of the ARMM polls “well within 36 hours.” As
project manager for the August 11 elections, Smartmatic
is also in charge of the OMR results and will be using a
virtual private network to send election outcomes.
Under
the OMR technology, voters will shade ovals opposite the
names of candidates using special ballot papers to be
read by a computer.
Casiple
does not doubt the integrity of the two technologies,
especially the DRE, which will be used in the country
for the first time.
“It’s
hard to manipulate [the system] unless someone sabotages
it,” he said, citing past election experiences in the
region where voters were prevented from trooping poll
precincts to cast their votes.
Aside
from having about 100,000 double and multiple
registrants during last year’s national elections, the
ARMM is also notorious for poll fraud perpetrated by
some politicians.
Beyond
poll automation
Comelec
Commissioner Rene Sarmiento is also shocked at the
extent of the electoral mess in the region. During the
2007 senatorial polls, Sarmiento, then commissioner in
charge of Lanao del Sur, had to go on sick leave after
overseeing the elections there.
“Delays
in the voting, counting, canvassing, transmission and
consolidation of votes provide a futile ground for
fraud. An automated election system…will substantially
address this chronic problem,” said Sarmiento in a
speech delivered before a preelection summit organized
by the church-based Parish Pastoral Council for
Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
Sarmiento, whose entry to the Comelec gave civil-society
groups some hope in the scandal-scarred commission, is
backing moves to reschedule the ARMM elections during
national polls.
“The
simultaneous conduct of regular, national and local
elections in ARMM and in various parts of the county is
encouraging failure of elections in ARMM. Allowing
failure of elections and holding special elections have
become a cottage industry for some Comelec field
personnel, for election criminals and for politicians,”
he said.
The
former adviser to the peace process in Mindanao believes
that obtaining order in the region goes beyond
automating the ARMM elections. He urged Malacañang to
pursue a “holistic” peace approach in the Muslim region.
“Peace
in ARMM can only come if there is the blending of
electoral, economic, political, actual, ethical and
legal reforms,” Sarmiento said, noting also the
participation of civil-society groups in this task.
Ad
interim appointments
Malacañang’s proclivity for making appointments when
Congress is in recess is once again raising eyebrows
among civil-society groups. A month before the ARMM
polls, President Arroyo appointed retired Court of
Appeals Justice Lucenito Tagle and former Malabon
Regional Trial Court Acting Judge Leonardo Leonida to
fill up two of three vacancies in the poll body.
The
PPCRV and the IPER, two of many civil-society
organizations that formed a search committee to provide
the President a shortlist of candidates to the Comelec,
were surprised.
“That’s
a big question. We don’t know them. They were not even
on the shortlist of candidates,” said Casiple.
Even
Comelec Chairman Jose Melo, whose appointment to the
commission had the blessing of civil-society groups,
said he does not know the two poll officials personally.
Last
year the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN)
urged Arroyo not to make another ad interim appointment
to the Comelec to prevent officials from exercising full
authority during elections even without yet going
through the Commission on Appointments.
TAN said
the President made nine ad interim appointments to the
Comelec, including the infamous Virgilio Garcillano, who
was allegedly responsible for delivering a million votes
in favor of Arroyo during the 2004 presidential polls.
A day
after their appointment, Tagle and Leonida buckled down
to work in the Comelec and were given assignments for
the ARMM polls.
“They
[commission en banc] have no choice,” observed Casiple. |
