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Canvassing in 2007 Elections: A Preliminary Report
Introduction
This is the fourth report of the Bantay-Eleksyon 2007 or
the People’s Coalition to Monitor the 2007 Elections. It
covers the post-May 14, 2007 election day activities,
particularly the canvassing and proclamation of
candidates.
This report covers the following areas of the May 14
elections:
a. Special elections
b. Municipal- and city-level canvassing
c. Provincial-level canvassing
d. Canvassing of senatorial and party-list elections
e. Proclamation of candidates
A. Special elections
On May 18, 2007, the Comelec issued Comelec resolution
No. 8060 ordering special elections on May 26, 2007 in
the ARMM municipalities of Pualas, Butig, Lumbatan,
Marogong, Kapatagan, Sultan Dumalondong, Lumbayanague,
Kapai, Madalum, Lumba Bayabao, Masiu, Binadayan and
Bayang. These were held as scheduled. Other areas in
ARMM, in Batangas held theirs last June 20, 2007.
Special elections, as a rule, should not have happened
at all. They assume a failure of elections in those
places where they are to be held. The key observations
regarding this matter are the following:
1. Presence of threat or actual violence. In many
places, particularly in ARMM, the level of electoral
violence has been so high that the electoral processes
in many places have been disrupted or their results
become suspect.
Even the special elections were not spared the violence.
An example is the Taysan, Batangas special elections in
which voters became afraid because of threats of
violence by masked men before the elections.
2. Failure of election administration. In some places,
the intentional or forced absence of election officers
or members of the Board of Inspectors precipitate the
failure of elections. This should have been attended to
as part of the Comelec’s contingency plans.
3. Prevention or harassment of election monitors.
Usually, there is a campaign to prevent, harass or
otherwise distract election monitors from observing
conduct of these failed elections.
B. Municipal- and city-level canvassing
In almost all places nationwide, municipal and city
canvassing proceeded as planned and finished within 48
to 72 hours, except in those places where
pre-proclamation protests were made.
However, many of these canvassing were marred by various
irregularities and violation of election laws and
Comelec resolutions. The following were observed:
1. Delays in canvassing. The manual canvassing process
has proved to be very tedious, requiring the reading and
tallying of votes at least 170 candidates, with many
legal and procedural questions along the way. The delays
were also sometimes caused by delay in the transport of
election documents from the precincts. All these delays
contribute to accusations of cheatings and generally
undermine the credibility of the canvassing process.
2. Irregularities in the canvassing process. The most
contentious canvassing is at this level. The observed
irregularities here included the prevention of watchers
and/or public from observing the process, election
documents of unproved provenance or insufficient, false
or wrong signatures, unqualified or unauthorized persons
conducting or participating in the canvass,
discrepancies between statement of votes and election
returns, and unusual delay of start or conduct of
canvassing.
C. Provincial-level canvassing
As of this date, only the Shariff Kabungsuan and Cagayan
provincial canvass have not been finished. Most of the
provincial canvasses have finished within two weeks of
the May 14 elections.
The provincial canvasses also suffered the same problems
of the municipal and city canvasses, namely, the
following:
1. Delays in canvassing. The manual canvassing process
has proved to be very tedious, often with many legal and
procedural disputes. As in the municipal canvass, all
these delays contribute to accusations of cheatings and
generally undermine the credibility of the canvassing
process.
2. Irregularities in the canvassing process. The
observed irregularities here included the prevention of
watchers and/or public from observing the process,
election documents of unproved provenance or
insufficient, false or wrong signatures, unqualified or
unauthorized persons conducting or participating in the
canvass, discrepancies between municipal or city
statement of votes (SOVs) and certificates of canvass
COCs), and unusual delay of start or conduct of
canvassing.
3. Questionable acts of provincial election supervisors
and other election officials and deputies. The most
outstanding example here is the case of Maguindanao’s
Lintang Bedol/ He allegedly “lost” the Maguindanao
municipal certificates of canvass that will be used for
the provincial of canvass. Comelec “reconstructed” these
COCs from other “copies” in an unprecedented procedure
that lent suspicion to their provenance.
D. Canvassing of senatorial and party-list elections
Canvassing of the senatorial and party-list
elections has not yet been finished as of this date.
Only 11 out of 12 senatorial positions have been filled
with the proclamation of seven Genuine Opposition (GO)
candidates, two Team Unity (TU) candidates, and two
independent candidates. The last slot is still a toss-up
between GO candidate Aquilino Pimentel III and TU
candidate Miguel Zubiri. No winning party-list group has
been proclaimed although at least 15 groups have over
two percent votes already.
The following have been observed as failings or
weaknesses of the canvassing process:
1. Slow pace of the national canvassing process. This is
already more than a month since the May 14 elections. It
has been expected and in fact projected by the Comelec
that national candidates will have been proclaimed
within two weeks after the elections. The gross delay
has led to many speculations that massive cheating is
being done on the results. The latter has not
materialized but there is anxiety that the Maguindanao
certificates of canvass are not credible.
2. Problems in the manual canvassing of votes. There
were many inaccuracies, verging on and leading to
accusations of “dagdag-bawas” cheating, in the canvass
of provincial COCs. These inaccuracies happened in Davao,
Zambales, South Cotabato, and other provinces. This
basically extends the chain of inaccuracy from the
precinct-level errors and municipal level inaccuracies.
It basically puts in doubt the whole manual system of
elections in the country.
3. Cumbersome process of canvassing. The highly-legalist
approach to canvassing has proved to be very cumbersome
and added a lot to the slow pace of national canvassing.
This may be an unavoidable effect of the manual process
but nevertheless it remains an antiquated and
less-than-optimum procedure.
E. Proclamation of candidates
The proclamation of candidates at the municipal or city,
provincial, and national levels are basically over,
except for some positions that are still in contention.
The elections, in this sense, were a democratic success
in producing the new leaders for the next three years
(or six years in the case of the senators).
However, there are major observations with many of these
proclamations:
1. Many of these proclamations were delayed. There were
many reasons for these, among them delayed canvassing,
pre-proclamations protests, missing Board of Canvassers
and/or Board of Election Inspectors, and missing
election documents. In some cases, accusations of
cheating were made,
2. Many of the proclamations were protested. There are
several hundreds of elections, particularly at the local
level, which are the subject of post-proclamation
protests. This points, not only to a certain subculture
of non-acceptance of an electoral loss, but also to the
low credibility of the canvassing process itself.
Findings
1. The current manual method of canvassing is a
demonstrated failure in the May 2007 elections. It is a
procedure that easily led to unacceptable delays per
stage of canvassing, up to proclamation of candidates.
It is also readily susceptible to various manipulations
by unscrupulous persons who have motives to cheat in the
elections. Lastly, it is vulnerable to threats of
violence or disruption, particularly if the canvassing
stretches for more than 24 hours.
2. The Commission on Elections, in so far as it
undertook the preparations for and supervision of actual
canvassing processes, performed adequately. However, its
handling of the various controversies that attended the
canvassing leaves much to be desired in terms of
coherent and timely decisions, firm leadership in the
field, and non-partisanship.
3. The canvassing process in the 2007 elections makes
the case for its automation and for the top-to-bottom
revamp of the Comelec. |
