Journey to political renewal

ALTHOUGH the current electoral process is still far from over, the general national feeling is that of amazement and perhaps satisfaction. It is not farfetched that some may even hail some awards to the Comelec and those responsible for its developing success.

The manual count that took ages to accomplish because, admittedly, it took the long route of manipulations which included the notorious “dagdag-bawas”, is finally archived—and hopefully forever together with the dirty machinations that went with it.

The long queues of voters aside, the speed of the automated polls was so stunning that it may have given no time for schemers and operators to work on their age-old craft of rigging election results. This first poll automation in the country is a “milestone”, or so said the Cardinal of Manila with some good reasons.

Of course, the poll automation was far from perfect. Perhaps the admiration may even just be an expression of a simple sensation of relief from the grim scenarios painted by the constant malfunctioning of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines that made dumb out of Commission on Elections and SMARTMATIC-TIM, the machine supplier.

Without discounting the possibility that a barrage of protest will follow suit after the random manual audit is finished in a day or two, this automation is a big leap enough towards the long journey of political renewal in the country—even if the socio-political value system (which, for instance, is still the one that feeds on the rampant vote buying) is still in the works.