Election blues

EDITORIAL

Many factors have affected outcome of the last elections ranging from malfunctioning PCOS machines, replacement of ballots, violence, vote-buying and stop to counting of ballots for party list groups.

               

Votes for disqualified partylist groups should be rightfully taken off the partylist votes, but the Katribu  indigenous peoples sectoral party sees no credible reason why the Comelec stopped tallying votes for the partylist race while it continued to count votes cast for senators.

The Comelec decided to suspend the canvassing for partylist votes late afternoon of May 14, purportedly because of “issues” in the partylist elections, because of the inclusion of disqualified groups in the ballot.

Cause oriented groups as a result, said the electorate should not suffer anymore bastardization of their right to suffrage. In the first place, they said, the Comelec has been inconsistent in addressing wide protests over dubious, unrepresentative partylist groups months before ballot printing, such as Mikey Arroyo’s Ang Galing Pinoy Partylist and many other groups pretending to represent the marginalized.

According to Katribu, suspension of the partylist canvassing was unnecessary and suspicious, since the transmission of votes for senators and partylists were simultaneously being done.

With reports of discrepancies, failure of elections and delays in many areas, they said, this suspension was another anomaly that will mar the credibility of this elections.

In indigenous peoples-populated areas such as in the Cordillera and in Caraga for example, the transmission of votes have been slow; while in Taytay, Palawan 99 percent of the PCOS machines did not function as promised by the Comelec.

Failure of elections were declared in a Baguio barangay and Compostela Valley and as such, disenfranchised voters like in Barangay Lualhati in Baguio complained. Despite this, Comelec chief Sixto Brilliantes said elections in such areas were not necessary if the number of votes did not affect the national outcome. He said this would be expensive.

So what about the position for councillors in Baguio where it was tightly contested?, the voters asked. At press time, the Comelec didn’t issue a statement on whether elections in the areas would be held. Voters said they were denied the right to suffrage no matter if they were deemed insignificant.

Anyhow, the suspension of the partylist canvass was a way of easing out the truly deserving from the partylist elections, critics said even as many PCOS machines conked out.

There was no need for the Comelec to stop the partylist count. The Comelec would have simply subtracted the votes cast for the disqualified groups from the total partylist votes. This is elementary mathematics, critics are saying.

They said the Comelec must be made accountable for the glitches, delays, malfunctions, boo-boos, and the reported fraud committed the elections. Is anybody in the Comelec listening?