Sunday, March 02, 2008 Cabaero: Elections talk By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
WITH people talking about snap elections or the holding of the 2010 polls, you would hope that the country’s electoral processes have been improved.
But the election of young legislators held in Cebu last week gave us a foretaste of how the electoral processes remain problematic and we cannot hope for improved political exercises, whether in a snap polls or in 2010, unless changes are made.
The National Movement of Young Legislators (NMYL) elections were described as hotly contested and fraught with questions about the computerized conduct of the polls. The poll results led supporters of the losing camp to complain that young leaders were turning into traditional politicians, according to the Sun.Star Cebu report Saturday.
The elections were computerized, using the same system that in the last national elections in May 2007 was not implemented because of questions of reliability.
You would hope that the combination of computerization and the fact it was an election for and among the youth would be a good way to test the system but, as it turned out, it was the same sad story once again of an untrustworthy electoral process.
The report said 1,580 young legislators (aged 35 and below) voted but only at least 900 votes got counted.
Provincial Board (PB) Member Seth Frederick “Bullet” Jalosjos (Zamboanga del
Norte, 1st district) lost by only 61 votes to Cecilia “Jeng” Reyes, PB Member from Isabela, for the movement’s presidency.
“The whole process had a lot of discrepancies,” Jalosjos said, adding that many of his supporters were not able to vote because they lacked some requirements. But Reyes said she too had supporters who failed to cast their ballots.
There were reports of parties for convention participants, celebrity endorsers brought in during the campaign and a campaign budget for one candidate of almost P1 million.
If the option of holding snap presidential elections this coming May will be upheld as suggested by forces calling for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign, it could be a case of the people’s choice still not getting elected due to manipulation and the tricks of traditional politicians.
The results of the NMYL elections were proof that much work needs to be done toward improving the process of choosing the nation’s next leaders. You would expect young elected officials to be of pure heart and filled with a sense of dedication to service, plus the use of computerized elections as a means to a more reliable count. That remains to be a dream.
Voters’ education and a new computerization process are required for the next national elections to be better than past political exercises in terms of honest and clear results.
Without these difficult processes, another election soon or in year 2010 cannot bring forth new leaders who can move the country to a future of integrity and growth.
