Comelec scored for insisting on ARMM polls
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—A civil society group has criticized the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for insisting on holding the August elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The Reform ARMM Now! (RAN) said the Comelec should instead agree to the proposal to reset the elections to 2013.
Earlier, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. has been quoted as saying the elections would push through and P2.2 billion would be spent for computerized voting.
Salic Ibrahim, RAN convenor, said using computers would never ensure a fraud-free exercise in the region.
“In previous years, we had elections using these machines but it did not solve the problem of massive fraud and cheating in the region,” Salic told reporters here on Wednesday.
Running out of time
Tom Villarin, another convenor of RAN, said with only a few months to go, the Comelec is running out of time and can never ensure that the elections in the ARMM will be “fair and free from fraud.”
“We are wondering why the Comelec insists on conducting the elections in August,” he said.
Villarin said his group was also wondering why the Comelec wanted P2.2 billion for the elections.
He said the poll body should instead agree to postpone the elections and use the break to cleanse the region’s voter list.
He said postponing the elections to 2013 is the only assurance that genuine reforms can be done in ARMM.
For Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Magudadatu, the postponement would provide the government time to revisit the peace agreement it signed with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996.
“With the ample time, we hope that we can subsequently come up with the full implementation of the provisions of the agreement,” said the governor.
The postponement, he said, can also save money for the government that could be used for genuine electoral reforms.
Reform provision
One of the bills that congressmen recently passed did not only seek to reset the elections but also mandated the cleansing of the voters’ list in ARMM.
“We would like to erase the impression that ARMM is a cheating capital,” said Maguindanao Rep. Bai Sandra Sema, one of the authors of a bill that seeks to postpone the ARMM elections.
Although opposed to the postponement of the elections, Catholic priest Fr. David Procalla, regional chair for ARMM of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, supported Sema’s stand to cleanse the voters’ list and use biometrics.
“By then, the rats, dogs, birds and what have you have no more chance to cast their votes as in the past,” Procalla said in jest, referring to multiple registrants and flying voters in the ARMM. Jeffrey M. Tupas and Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
