MUSLIM leaders have expressed doubts that voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are ready for modernized elections, given the high illiteracy rate in the area.

“Our people are not yet ready for automation,” admitted Ustadz Esmael Ibrahim of the Assembly of Darul Ifta of the Philippines in a preelection summit organized by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) held in Manila.

Leaders of Roman Catholic and Muslim civil society groups met in preparation for the August 11 ARMM elections—the first to be automated since the law on election modernization was approved almost two decades ago.

Ibrahim said while automating the election in the ARMM would help avoid the perennial massive cheating that normally takes place in the region, three months of voters’ education are not enough for people to adjust to a new technology.

“The preparation is very limited. We should have more time,” Ibrahim told reporters in an interview.

The 2003 functional literacy survey of the National Statistics Office showed the ARMM as having the lowest basic literacy rate in the country with 30 percent of persons aged 10 to 64 years old considered illiterate. 

On the national level, one out of every 10 Filipinos can’t read and write, according to the survey.

Ibrahim said illiteracy in the ARMM is worst in Sulu, with 40 percent of its people unlettered. He added that voters’ education should be done at least six months prior to election day to cover all areas in the region.

Amina Rasul, lead convenor of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy is also apprehensive that the ARMM is ready for automation.

She said “bringing in a new system” might not work right now for the Muslim-dominated region because of its high illiteracy rate.

The Commission on Elections, (Comelec) however, said that poll automation is not “new” in the ARMM since it has experienced a computerized election in 1996. This even if the machines used then bogged down.

Jose Tolentino Jr., Comelec executive director, said the technologies that will be used during the ARMM election are very easy for voters to learn. The Comelec will be using a touch-screen system called direct recording electronic (DRE) technology and the optical-mark reader (OMR) technology during the August polls.

The DRE will contain pictures of candidates and will be used in Maguindanao, while the OMR requires voters to shade ovals with names of candidates to vote in other parts of the ARMM.

There are a total of 1.6 million registered voters in the six provinces constituting the ARMM, according to the Comelec.

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