Disenfranchising voters and election woes

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

Close to 75 percent of 50 million voters will troop to the precincts to cast their votes less than three months from now. The numbers were projected by the Comelec and independent groups who are concerned with election matters.

But while the agencies have estimated the numbers, not anyone of them is talking about how many will be disenfranchised and what will cause disenfranchisement.

Aside from taking away one’s right to vote due to reasons such as being delisted for failure to vote in two successive elections – the 2007 national elections and Barangay elections, the Comelec has done little effort in ensuring that registered voters are able to locate their names and their voting precincts.

In past elections the Comelec had posted the lists of voters in the precincts three days before the actual voting, but the agency will no longer do that this time because the lists are being stolen or lost, according to Cordillera Comelec director Julius Torres.

I thought all the while that along with the right to vote is the right of every voter to be fully informed about where his precinct is located. But since Comelec updates its records every now and then, chances are that names of voters get mixed up. Hence, voters are disenfranchised.

Nobody is being blamed for such glitches, even while these are expected in the age of computers. But the right of every voter must be guaranteed and the lists being lost or stolen should not be the reasons why the Comelec will no longer post the list of voters many days before election day.

Around six to seven million Filipinos have been deactivated by the Comelec since the start of registration last year.

The other reasons for deactivation of voters are those who have lost their Filipino citizenship, those excluded by Court orders, those who were convicted of crimes with penalties of imprisonment for more than a year, those who have committed crimes due to disloyalty to the Philippine government, and those found to be insane.

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In Baguio City alone there are around 80 candidates vying for posts for congressman, mayor down to the last councilor seat. Problem is that a common poster area designated by the Comelec in a certain voting district can not accommodate the posters of all the candidates. With this situation, a candidate and his supporters resort to making illegal remedies.

In most cases, the incumbents along with the administration candidates go ahead and decorate the whole billboard with their campaign ads, leaving no space for the other candidates.
In the history of Philippine elections, no candidate has ever been punished for violations of election rules, especially if the violator is with the administration party. In certain instances, cases are filed in Court but resolving it will take another century.
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On campaign expenses, the Comelec has updated its rules and penalties for violations. But updated or not, I have not heard of anybody being sent to jail for extravagant spending.

A candidate who is running for a national post, according to the Comelec, is allowed to spend a maximum of 10 pesos for each voter, five pesos for each voter for local candidates and three pesos for each voter for independent party candidates.
Expenses include donations of all forms, whether in cash, in kind or services. Here, the Comelec said, most candidates do not declare or report to the commission their true expenses.

But whether a politician makes a factual declaration of his expenses, the whole world knows if a certain candidate has been overspending and has gone beyond the limit. In fact, the TV infomercials of a presidential candidate that we see everyday are enough proof of a violation.

In the past, the Comelec has been branded as an agency that does not know how to count. Now, it seems, it refuses to see what the public can see.
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Congratulations to the people of Kalinga and Apayao on their 15th founding anniversary. They used to be under the Province of Kalinga-Apayao, until this was split into two distinct provinces on February 14, 1995, by virtue of RA 7878 authored by then Kalinga-Apayao representative Elias K. Bulut.

I wonder what went into the brains of the legislators who split the province of Kalinga-Apayao into two on Valentine’s Day or February 14, an annual holiday that is celebrated by all nations worldwide to celebrate love and affection between intimate friends. Whatever, Congratulations is in order. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com