Poll watchdogs: ARMM polls better but still not fraud-free
by TRINA LAGURA, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 08/15/2008 6:06 AM
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It was not fraud-free but the election process was better.
This was the initial assessment of two election watchdogs on the August 11 automated polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Both Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) and Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms (CARE) said that, compared to the previous elections when casting of ballots and counting of votes were done manually, the ARMM computerized polls were “better.”
“Automation somehow, most probably, reduced the chances of wholesale fraud. This is our initial assessment…. It’s not fraud-free but we can say it’s better than before,” lawyer Luie Guia of LENTE said during Thursday’s roundtable discussion on the ARMM polls.
The lawyer noted that automating the system eliminated any attempt to manipulate the poll results, a perennial problem that had long stalked every election exercise in the country.
Guia also described the ARMM automated elections as “relatively peaceful and orderly,” citing no reports of election-related violence in the region.
Salic Ibrahim, chairman of Citizens CARE, echoed the initial findings of LENTE.
Ibrahim said voters were able to go to their respective polling precincts and cast their ballot “without any problem.” He described the elections as “peaceful and uneventful.”
LENTE, a group of volunteer legal counsels and law students, fielded 42 lawyers and 89 paralegals in the provinces of Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur to monitor the conduct of elections.
Citizens CARE, on the other hand, deployed around 7,000 volunteer election monitors to six provinces in the region.
Citizens CARE and LENTE were both accredited citizens’ arm of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC).
What machines can’t solve
Despite a faster canvassing of ballots because of the automation, new and old issues still cropped up during the elections.
In their initial findings, Citizens CARE and LENTE reported incidents of ballot snatching, vote-buying, flying voters, underage voters, disenfranchisement, failure of elections, late opening of polling precincts, low voter turn-out in some areas, power outages, and delays in the canvassing.
They also noted that some registered voters could no longer cast their ballots because unknown people had already used their names.
Both groups also lamented that since most voters were unaware on how to use the machines, the board of election inspectors (BEIs) committed fraud themselves.
“Several [of our] volunteers reported seeing members of the BEI assisting voters cast their votes using the machines because they did not know how to use the machines. This is in gross violation of the rules of procedure issued by the COMELEC, which provides that the BEI can only assist the voters if they are illiterate or physically incapable of using the machines themselves,” LENTE’s preliminary report said.
It added: “There was no indication that the voters who were assisted by the BEI were listed as illiterate voters in their voters’ registration records.”
The report added that the main problems witnessed by LENTE volunteers were lack of practice machines, the inability of some voters to use the machines properly, and the lack of technical expertise of some BEIs.
“The counting is accurate but would that give us a clean and honest election? That remains to be seen,” Guia said.
The preliminary report of the Citizens CARE also reported that BEIs themselves were seen filling up the ballots for the voters.
Citizens CARE’s Ibrahim conceded that it was expected that there were “flaws” in the system because this was the first time that the automation was done.
Ibrahim also noticed that, unlike before when cheating was heavily committed during the canvassing of votes, acts of fraud in the precinct levels increased.
He said the COMELEC and other concerned agencies cannot solve these issues alone as he appealed for continuous education among voters and for the public to do its part in monitoring the election process.
Ibrahim said Citizens CARE is now in the process of consolidating the reports of its volunteers. It will submit its full report to the COMELEC not later than 30 days after the elections.
