Automated Election in the Philippines

Smartmatic-Election-Machines

The conduct of elections in the Philippines for the past four decades has remained largely   unchanged. Philippine elections rely heavily on manual tallying and canvassing of votes thus making them vulnerable to control and manipulation by traditional politicians and those with vested interests.

The cost of winning an elective post is highly expensive, and the absence of mechanisms to checkand limit sources of campaign funds become fertile grounds for corruption and divisiveness.  In recent years, initiatives to reform the electoral system included the enactment of the following laws: Republic Act (RA) 8046, establishing a pilot program modernizing the registrationand vote counting process in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Party List Law,Fair Elections Act and the Absentee Voting Act.

To address the inadequacies and limitations of the electoral process, RA 8436 or the Election Automation Act of 1997, was passed authorizing the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to use automated election system for vote counting and canvassing in the national and local polls. The law provided for the generation of a national computerized voters list, establishment of a voters identification card system and the automation of the vote counting. However, sectoral issues still hinder reform efforts in the electoral process. The following have been identified as basic problems afflicting the electoral system: (a) outdated electoral process; (b) failure to implement the electoral modernization law; (c) limited administrative and regulatory capabilities of the COMELEC; (d) ineffective educational/information campaigns on new laws and policies; (e) weak political party system; (f) unaccountable political financing; and (g) defective party list system (Governance Assessment, 2003).

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