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WITH a
60-percent turnout that exceeded low expectations of 40
percent, and sporadic accounts of disruptions that
failed to stop the exercise in most places, the
automated elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM) were declared “successful” by the poll
chief.
“The
turnout became very, very well, because people are
curious about the system,” Commission on Elections
chairman Jose Armando Melo happily announced in a press
conference on Monday.
According to Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino,
this is the biggest turnout in the history of ARMM
elections, deemed problematic in past years because of
the risks associated with manual voting, counting and
canvassing. In contrast, the automated system used for
Monday’s exercise is seen to produce results in 36
hours.
“I think
the people in ARMM are more excited to use the new
system of voting, that’s why the voter turnout is higher
than what we expected,” Tolentino added. In Maguindanao,
which applied the direct recording electronic (DRE)
system of voting, people were very excited to touch the
photographs of their favorite candidates on-screen. He
reported a 60-percent turnout in the provinces of Lanao
del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan and Maguindanao, and 50
percent in Sulu.
“From
the report of the chief of staff in Tawi-Tawi, Bongao
had a 60-percent turnout, Languyan 85 percent to 90
percent, Sapa-Sapa 75 percent, Simunul 60 percent,
Sitangkai 90 percent and South Ubian 90 percent,”
Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said.
Minor
problems
Three
incidents of ballot-box snatching were reported in the
municipalities of Sumisip, Basilan; Barira, Shariff
Kabunsuan and in Balindong, Lanao del Sur.
Melo
said they would call for special elections if the 1, 896
voters in affected areas will impact the final result.
In the
municipality of Balindong, Lanao del Sur, Melo said the
BEI group had an accident, and the BEI chairman was
injured and brought to hospital, leaving some ballot
boxes unattended, and the ballots were snatched. “There
are only 464 voters, so it is [such a small number] to
affect the whole,” Melo explained.
Sarmiento described the peace-and-order situation in
Tawi-Tawi as excellent.
Overall,
the automated election fascinated both voters and poll
officials and they agreed that it really sped up the
actual voting process.
And
although it was generally peaceful for this region,
known traditionally for violence during elections,
irregularities surfaced and marred the integrity of the
polls in some areas.
Voters
in Shariff Kabunsuan and Maguindanao were amazed at
seeing their pictures beside their names in the voters’
list of the Board of Election Inspectors, and took only
less than a minute to as much as three minutes to select
their candidates.
Voters
in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Talayan and Shariff Aguak were
seen milling around in windows of classrooms, with
quizzical looks as they watched voters inside tinker
with the machine.
Incumbent Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan only spent three minutes
inside Shariff Aguak Central Elementary School in
Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao. He entered at 7:37 a.m.
and was out by 7:40, displaying a strip of paper
indicating who he voted.
On the
average, voters spent less than three minutes in many of
the 1,695 polling precincts in 279 barangays of
Maguindanao, which alone was tested on the performance
of the DRE system, where the voter only uses a touch pad
to press on his selections. A touch screen shows the
visual result of what was pressed on the touch pad. The
computer machine would prompt the voter for confirmation
in every selection made.
2
technologies tested
The
Commission on Elections tested in the rest of the ARMM’s
gubernatorial and regional board elections the Optical
Mark Reader (OMR).
The OMR
would be used for automated counting and canvassing, and
would still require voters to fill out ballots manually.
Voters would darken circles or boxes corresponding to
the names of candidates, which are preprinted in the
papers, and which simulates the kind of testing papers
used by the Professional Regulations Commission.
Monitoring teams and government officials also spoke
highly of the conduct of elections, saying the two
possible technologies that may be adopted in the
presidential elections in 2010 would “definitely help a
lot in preventing post-election violence”.
The
Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV)
lauded the speed of the process, saying the method of
shading only the space beside the name of the candidate
made it easier to select.
“You
don’t need to memorize or write names; it’s so simple
that even a simple farmer can do it,” a chairman of the
BEI in Sultan Kudarat Elementary School in the
municipality of Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan. But
as it sped up the process, the head of the Consortium of
Bangsamoro Civil Society, Sammy Maulana, suggested that
Comelec conduct a training for the electorate to use the
machines.
This was
prompted by observations in the precincts where even the
poll watchers allowed inside were seen forcing, rather
than guiding, the hand of some voters, as seen in some
elementary schools in Saudi Ampatuan Central School.
In
Timbangan Elementary School in Shariff Aguak, voters
were seen queued up inside the precinct. Also in Datu
Saudi Ampatuan town, a man was seen putting the
indelible ink on the fingers of others sitting outside
the precinct.
In
Making Elementary School in Parang, as well as in Parang
Central Elementary School, indelible ink was not placed
on voters’ forefingers. One voter surmised that “it is
not necessary anymore because we have our pictures on
the voters’ list anyway.”
In the
towns that a group of journalists and monitoring teams
in Maguindanao went to, truckloads of voters were seen
unloaded in the voting precincts. In Datu Pandelila
Elementary School in barangay Salvu, Datu Saudi Ampatuan
town, the female barangay captain supervised the cooking
of vegetables in coconut milk “for everyone to eat.”
A group
of voters near the fence of the Making Elementary School
was also seen giving or receiving small sheets of papers
while a man slowly walked away a short while later,
tucking a little paper inside his pocket.
“It’s
very peaceful, but the machines have no privacy. People
using them should have training,” Maulana of the
Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society said.
AFP, PNP
verdict: peaceful
The
police and military described the elections as generally
peaceful and orderly except for some isolated incidents
in the province of Basilan. |
