Gordon to Comelec: We're fighting a war on poll cheating, act fast!
Senator Richard Gordon criticized the Commission on Elections
(COMELEC) for system particularly in the implementation of automated
elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) polls.
"We are fighting a war on electoral fraud. To fight a war, we have
to act fast, and act decisively or else we will lose. Our people will
lose. Automated elections should be working by now," said Gordon.
He said that time is running out for computerizing the ARMM
elections and everybody is talking about the 2010 national elections,
but the Comelec hasn't even started cleaning up the mess it has made
of the last elections. "How can we talk about who's going to be
president when we cannot fix how they are elected in the position?,"
Gordon asked.
"We want to end cheating in elections. If we do not modernize our
electoral system now, will we wait until 2013? Until 2016? How long
will it take? If we don't fix this now, people will always question
the elections," the senator explained.
Gordon emphasized that computerizing ARMM in August is vital in
rebuilding the credibility in the nation's democratic system and
empowering the people to choose their leaders.
"The Filipino people will be the big losers here. The Comelec is not
working and instead seems to be delaying the Automated Elections
System for 10 years running. We need to drag Comelec kicking and
screaming out of its tarnished ivory tower to put the law to work," he
said.
Gordon feared that 'we will never have a stable political system.
There will always be winners in an election, but until we provide a
good automated system, the winners will always be questioned."
Gordon is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional
Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws, as well as the principal
author in the Senate of the Automated Elections bill. Under the
approved bill, full automation of the elections nationwide would be
implemented in the 2010 national and local elections.
Earlier the senator cited COMELEC's track record of incompetence,
with the botched billion-peso voters ID project, the 1.3 billion peso
MegaPacific deal struck down by the Supreme Court – for which the
COMELEC is still incurring massive expense and has yet to follow the
Supreme Court's instructions to get its money back, the Hello Garci
scandal, and most recently, the involvement of then Chair Abalos in
the ZTE Broadband Deal. --30--
1 comment:
good day po, tatanong ko lang po sana kung nangangailangan ba ang COMELEC ng mga volunteers na tutulong sa pagpapaalam sa mga voters kung ano ang magaganap sa automated voting, paano gamitin ang mga machines, atbp. kasi po hindi naman lahat ay mayroong telebisyon o internet kung saan mapapanood nila ang wastong paraan ng pagboto lalong lalo na sa mga rural areas. gusto ko po sanang maging instrumento sa pagbabahagi ng kaalamang ito sa mga nangangailangan alang-alang po sa maayos na pagpapatupad ng automation.
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