Curiously, the election figures closely follow the pre-election surveys of SWS and Pulse Asia. This seems eerily unusual.
More important than making one's preferred candidate win, is making the system of voting work. It will break the nation's heart if massive electronic cheating is eventually uncovered. More so if those who complain the loudest turn out to benefit the largest.
In the coming days, the Comelec, Smartmatic, PPCRV and the leading candidates will need to convince the majority of the voters that no "electronic election fraud" happened.
Acknowledging that the system is more important than the candidate, let's hope for the best that the May 2010 results reflected only a failure in the electoral campaign rather than a failure of elections. Then again we should also prepare for the worst.
Dodong aka Ka Kiko
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A shot at the heart of the nation
FROM A DISTANCE By Carmen N. Pedrosa (The Philippine Star) Updated May 15, 2010 12:00AM
The question before us is not about losing or winning. If that were the only reason we should hail the example of candidates who gallantly conceded in the presidential contest — Villar, Teodoro and Gordon as soon as the unofficial PPCRV count was out putting Noynoy ahead.
Like Al Gore, the losers who have conceded would rather preserve the peace and stability of the country by accepting the results. I go along with the spirit of sportsmanship of candidates who accepted their defeat. But that was not all there was to it.
There is a difference between what happened in the United States between George Bush and Al Gore. Gore’s graceful concession strengthened America and its institutions. As Tom Friedman of the New York Times wrote “Al Gore reinforced the system by his graceful concession; Mr. Bush will have to reinforce it by his presidency.” That was not to be and Americans learned their lesson at such a high cost.
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Filipinos are expected to do the same with losers by taking it on the chin and forget that they had just gone through a grueling campaign that sometimes made us believe (erroneously in hindsight) it was only a matter of choosing candidates who were best for the country. To some it was not about candidates. The background chorus was about a growing resolve that it would also be the most honest with media and foreign observers keeping watch. But revelations have been pouring in that this may not have been the case.
Clean and honest elections by the new automated system was hailed as fool-proof against cheating. In the run up to May 10, it was said that any attempt to cheat would be blamed on the Arroyo administration. The basic reason for holding an election — to choose the best man or woman who would bring change was sidestepped. It was a shot at the heart of the nation.
When the precincts closed at 7 p.m. there was a sigh of relief — the elections were generally peaceful with only pockets of violence. The usual media outlets hailed the victory of automation against cheating because these were released to the public quickly. Not so fast. When the morning after came, some of the candidates and there lawyers were in shock and disbelief at the figures.
Some of those who complained were Erap who allegedly lost in San Juan and Bayani Fernando in Marikina. These numbers were unbelievable even if they came from the machines. They are not complaining about having lost. But you can’t blame them if they would like to know how they could have lost in their own bailiwicks. At this writing, there are teams of lawyers closely combing through the ballots and scrutinizing the system installed by Smartmatic. According to reliable sources, they are looking into why there were no media or civil society groups or party representatives who were present during the three days when the memory cards were reconfigured.
Various losing candidates are investigating to know just why and how it happened. Nicanor Perlas, Sen. Jamby Madrigal and J.C. de los Reyes may be the tail-enders but they are doing a great public service by leading the call for an investigation on just what went on with the machines with results that seemed to have been programmed rather than an accurate quick count. Only then would they concede.
As far as they are concerned the elections are not over until the last vote has been counted and audited. That is what Senator Mar Roxas said who is in a bitter fight against long time Makati mayor Jejomar Binay for the vice presidency.
Manoling Morato has come out on television that he was amazed when the PPCRV released the same percentages at 8.30 and again at 11.30 when more tallies had come in. There was not an iota of change on all four leading candidates. He said “It seemed that the percentages had been pre-set, as programmed.” Incidentally, they do not differ from the surveys. Even ANC anchors were surprised when despite the automation the PPCRV went ahead of the Comelec in tallying the votes. I heard one say, it seemed the roles were reversed. It was expected that Comelec and PPCRV would be doing parallel counts. The mounting criticisms and investigations may reveal that the automation may not have been fool-proof after all.
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