May 10th 2010

Two days ago around 90 delegates from 11 countries met in Manila to prepare to be observers at the May 10 elections in the Philippines. They are now deployed in seven parts of the country, primarily regions where fraud has been suspected, and in many cases confirmed, in the past.

This year’s elections are particularly important because it marks the end of nine years in office of the present President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is held responsible by much of the population for a large number of politically motivated assassinations and disappearances. The voting is complex because elections are held simultaneously for President, Vice-President, Senators, and Congress, as well as mayors and other local or regional officials. This time the situation is even more volatile because a new automated voting system is being used which has been tried out only at the last minute, and appears to be subject to a number of problems.

Today in the northern province of Abra, where there has been a history of violent conflict between supporters of the various warlords, a group of ten PIOM participants witnessed the failure of one of three machines at polling stations in the provincial capital of Bangued, resulting in hundreds of would-be voters waiting in line for hours in the West Bangued Elementary schoolyard in temperatures of around 35 degrees celsius.

The closing time has now been extended from 6pm to 7pm, but it is likely that many people will still be waiting to vote at that time. The one back-up machine allotted to this area is already in use elsewhere, and there have been few public contingency plans to deal with widespread failure of the new system. A machine is promised for 6pm today.

Meanwhile the teachers administering that poll are accepting the completed ballots manually and expect to feed them into a machine once one becomes available. Voters are concerned that their vote may not be recorded. Several manual counts are to take place, to compare with the computerized results, but no-one knows what would happen if widespread discrepancies are found. In a climate of tension, where rivalries between powerful political dynasties are the norm, automation appeared to be at least a partial solution to some previous types of manipulation of voters or of the results. Whether that is the case will be clearer tomorrow. Millions of concerned Filipinos await the answer.

Valerie Rauol

Member, People’s International Observers’ Mission

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