Nograles should act

With just about a year to go before the 2010 presidential elections, Comelec and Congress still have some work to do to assure clean and honest elections.

For one, there is the pending bill in Congress allowing the Comelec to hold early elections in some areas, especially the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Traditionally, since post Liberation days, the cheating has occurred mostly in the five provinces of ARMM namely: Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. Early elections in these traditional areas of fraud will allow the Comelec, the Namfrel, PPCRV and the different political parties and candidates as well as media and foreign observers to concentrate on this smaller area to assure clean, orderly and honest election.

Secondly, the use of biometrics which was partly done during the ARMM elections should be adopted in as many areas as possible. This will eliminate the problem of flying voters and negate the necessity for a laborious cleansing process of the voters list.

The latest SWS survey shows a minus 22 approval rating for Speaker Prospero Nograles. It would be a good starting point for him to improve his ratings by passing the early voting bill which Comelec and the Namfrel have endorsed.

Comelec has now assured that a copy of the election result will be transmitted to every municipality. Since there will be results from 80,000 precincts, a major failure of election will be unlikely. We should discourage those who are thinking to implement the scenario to extend GMA’s term from going through with their nefarious plans.

Thirdly, the principal key to the whole automation process is the code or password to open the canvassing process. This would be a combination of letters and numbers which is supposed to be given in a sealed envelope to Chairman Jose Melo. For additional safeguard and also to protect the chairman’s integrity, it might be advisable to split the code into three parts — one going to the chairman, the second going to the chairman of the PPCRV and accredited Comelec watchdog and the third to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The three different parts have to be joined together at the proper time to open the canvassing.

So far, Comelec Chairman Melo and PPCRV Chairman Tita de Villa have been making the right moves. Let’s give them all our support and prayers. Our democracy depends fully on the holding of clean and honest elections in 2010 and the assumption of office by a legitimately elected president and Congress.