International watchdog’s findings, recommendations on May 10 polls

EDITORIAL

With positive and negative reports coming out on veracity of the May 10 Philippine automated elections, the International Election Observation Mission which monitored the polls has come out with its interim report.

The Asian Network for Free Elections deployed 39 long-term and short-term observers from 13 countries to Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon to observe and assess the elections. The following is a summary of the mission’s observations and findings:

The election was a potential turning point in the Philippines’ democratic history , in light of a history of elections marred by electoral fraud and irregularities. Even if people knew how to vote, many appeared apprehensive about the reliability of the automated machines.

One important feature of the process was simpler procedure for both absentee and overseas voters. The early detection of some of the ghost polling stations by the Commission on Elections somehow curbed the problem of multiple, fake and flying voting.

However, the voter lists were considered incomplete as a number of inadequacies raised concerns regarding accuracy and inclusiveness. Although verification safeguards did exist, incidences of multiple registrations occurred. Incomplete voter registration, where pictures and thumbprints were missing, must be rectified for future elections.

Campaign expenses for this election were costlier than previous elections and state administrative resources were used in support of some candidates whereas other candidates did not benefit similarly. In a few instances, some candidates used the state-owned establishments for the purpose of their campaign. Such examples underlined concern there was lack of distinct separation between the state administration and party structures during the campaign which was abused by incumbents.

Even before the campaign period began, a lot of candidates broke the rules on the advertising ban right away but the Commission on Elections seemed powerless to stop this, or simply lacked the political will.

Secrecy of the ballot was virtually impossible, due to arrangement of polling stations. Voters sat in close proximity to each other in crowded rooms with open windows, and although each voter was given a secrecy folder, the folder was too small to cover the entire ballot and in any case was underused.

Another problem was laxity in checking voters’ identity against the registered voters list, though it should be noted that the inclusion of voters’ biometrics data (photo and fingerprint) in the voters list, where possible, is a significant improvement from past practice. The order in which BEIs administered the signing and fingerprinting of the voters list and the issuance of the ballot also varied from one polling station to another. Other issues included improper or lack of sealing of the ballot box and PCOS machine.

Other problems were attributed to new practices in this year’s electoral administration. Long queues to vote resulted in waiting times that ranged from two to four hours, which discouraged some people from voting. The combination of precincts into clustered precincts allocated a maximum of one thousand voters per clustered precinct, yet only three BEIs were provided to handle many more voters per polling station than in previous elections. This situation was exacerbated whenever there were any technical problems with the PCOS machine.

In some rural areas, voters were still waiting as late as 10:30 p.m. The understaffing of the polling station also gave an excuse for party poll watchers to assist with the electoral administration, which clearly violated the principle of neutrality.

Among others, ANFREL suggested the following to make elections in the Philippines more free and fair:

1. Implement the regulations on campaign financing and spending.
2. Make all necessary efforts to end the culture of vote buying.
3. Eliminate campaigning on polling day, both inside and outside the polling stations.
4. Improve the voter registration process to ensure an authentic and reliable voters list.
5. Explore ways to modify the polling procedure or precinct districting in order to help maximize voter participation and public confidence in the election.
6. Ensure the secrecy of the ballot.
7. Strengthen training of BEIs and poll watchers to ensure that polling procedures are implemented in a uniform manner, and that the polling environment is orderly and peaceful.
8. Accredit a broad and representative range of civil society organizations, so that civil society can engage with and monitor the electoral process.
9. Design procedures to minimize the number of rejected ballots, such as conducting a manual count of rejected ballots.
10. Establish clear contingency plans for PCOS machine failure or transmission failure.
11. Publish data on the electoral process as soon as possible to increase transparency of the electoral process and allow for post-election monitoring by all stakeholders.
12. Thoroughly investigate election-related violent incidents as well as incidents of political violence, and bring the perpetrators to justice.