Credits

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Aftermath

It has been a day since we trooped to the polls to decide our destiny. I must admit that I am satisfied so far with the speed of the results. I must say I am disappointed however with the slow pace some of the results are being transmitted which makes some people suspect trending. I've heard from friends far south that operators are hard at work. Could this be the reason why problems of transmission seem to crop up? Even Cebu which has a modern telecom system seem to be encountering problems. I am not surprised with Lanao and we all know very well how Mindanao has always been an operator's haven.

Despite the promises of automation, I am wary of its performance. Disenfranchisement, pre-shading and even vote-buying were reported. I myself witnessed how jeepney-loads of voters were brought to the polling center and were fed before voting. Even disinformation was used to prevent voters from voting. Certain volunteers of a party-list were telling voters that the elections was extended to 11:00pm when it fact it was extended only by an hour.

In the bailiwick of a losing candidate, I got reports of intimidation and harassment. Voters in the depressed areas were fetched from their homes and brought to the polls. They were made to insert pre-shaded ballots into the PCOS machines. In fact, my very own mother complained to the BEI because her secrecy folder bore the signature and logo of a candidate. The PPCRV volunteer merely took the folder. My sister even got into an argument with a PPCRV volunteer. Paging PPCRV, do really vet your volunteers? You may have moles in your organization. You are supposed to be impartial and just. Obviously you have questionable volunteers.

Pace of results have slowed down considerably. The speed last night was amazing. The entire day today, only trickles of updates were given. Notice how small the number of votes are? The lack of information about where the votes were coming from leads to speculations. Even if my candidate is leading, I would like to know where the results were coming from. I'll be giving the COMELEC the benefit of the doubt, but are we really getting the right results? I now question the wisdom of random auditing. How I wished the parallel count was allowed.

The next few days will be crucial. I remain vigilant and regularly check COMELEC's website to check which precincts have sent their reports. It maybe a tedious task but that's the only way for me to get the real score. I hope everything works out. So much is riding on this elections. We cannot afford to be complacent. Unseen hands can still manipulate the outcome.

1 comments:

Tony B. said...

Sheesh...

By the way, have you ever heard about yummy-cebu.com? I hear they just finished a new contest called Mama's day out!