What Have You

The automated ARMM election results, which included Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Maguindanao, are expected to come out on August 12 or 13. The automated ARMM elections in the said areas are over and as promised, I will update readers on the automated ARMM election results in relation to my previous article “Is The Philippines Ready for an Automated Election?”.

As a former member of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI’s) in Laoag City for 6 times (yeah, that’s how old I am) I have developed this attachment to elections (not politics, although an election is a political exercise) especially the automated elections in the ARMM. My wife and I were on “Poll Watch” yesterday monitoring the development of the ARMM elections on TV and radio.

The election per se is not my concern because I will not take part in any ARMM election for life. I’m from Ilocos Norte and it would be stupid and impractical if I go to Mindanao just to watch the events unfolding in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, let alone cast a vote there. My concern as a mathematician was the reliability of the automated ARMM elections in terms of the following: voter turnout, reliability of the machines, voters’ perception on automation and incidence of cheating. The ARMM elections, like I’ve mentioned in my previous post is a pretest to the 2010 elections (synchronized National and Local). Was it successful based on the criteria I’ve mentioned above? Let’s find out and take a look at the following facts and figures:

Voter Turnout in the ARMM Elections

ARMM has a total of 2,470 barangays and 113 towns of which Lanao del Sur has the highest number of barangays and municipalities with 1,158 and 39, respectively.

A total of 1,516,259 registered voters will troop to 9,765 polling precincts to elect a regional governor, vice-governor and 24-seat members of the unicameral Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA). Of the six provinces, Lanao del Sur has the highest number of registered voters with 459,012, followed by Sulu with 280,527, Maguindanao with 245,415, Shariff Kabunsuan with 224,606, Tawi-Tawi with 156,027 and Basilan, 150,672. Of the estimated 1.5M voters, it turned out that only 50-60% cast their votes.

Performance of Machines

Forty seven (47) out of a total of 3,050 machines were reported to have bugged down.

Voters’ Perception on the Implementation of the Automated Election System

RA 9369 (Automated Election Law) mandated the use of machines that aims to facilitate faster casting and counting of votes. Most voters interviewed in TV agreed that automation has more benefits especially the elderly. Automation relieved them of too many writing tasks. It was much easier, according to most voters.

Incidence of Cheating and Violence

The Commission on Election (COMELEC) claimed yesterday that the automated ARMM elections were peaceful in all areas of concern and no reports whatsoever of cheating was received from candidates or their poll watchers/staff. Ironically, many voters were waiting for some candidates to “buy their votes”. This reflects that lamentable fact that vote buying has already become an acceptable practice during elections in the Philippines and has somewhat become part of the Filipino culture.

Originally, this post contained my simple analysis on the events during the ARMM elections. I divided the post into two parts because of its length.  If you’re interested in reading that material, please feel free to proceed to the next post titled “Analysis of the ARMM Elections”.

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