In her comments on the partial results of the Philippine mid-term elections, Prof. Winnie Monsod gave a good insight on what voters look for in a candidate for public office: competency, empowerment, and ethics. Apparently, empowerment rules in the minds of voters because a cursory look at those who were winning shows that these are the candidates who are expected to empower people (or would enable the voters to participate in governance). So those who were perceived to be “maka-masa” like Grace Poe, even if they have in mind her father Fernando Poe Jr., and Nancy Binay who looks like her father Jejomar Binay, got on the top of the list. Never mind if they have no inkling at all on how to formulate laws for the land. Next quality is competency – those who project intelligence like Chiz Escudero and Loren Legarda are voted notwithstanding the black propaganda hurled in their direction during the campaign period. So much for the ethics as a basis for electing public officials! There is one consolation though, in the trending of the senatorial election results – majority of those who got in the magic 12 are young and have the energy to face the challenges ahead; not old “trapos” who are just waiting for their necrological services to be held in the halls of Congress.

In the local level, none of these three qualities would have influenced the conscience of voters. If a candidate is a neophyte in the political arena, he or she does not have a chance. Name recall and familiarity still pervades the election. No aspirant worth his or her salt would gamble hard earned money on an election campaign that political dynasty still controls. This is the reason why young and qualified Moro lawyers and managers prefer appointed positions and private practice. They would rather contribute to development efforts without going through the election circus.

As of this writing, there were pronouncements that the election was generally peaceful, with none of the violence that marked elections in the past. However, there are still “glitches” in the process which COMELEC must look into.

First, despite the promises of a full automated election, many of the PCOS machines are non-functional or have easily bugged down. The machines have become the centerpiece of this election, which may be the reason why precincts have been lumped together, causing undue hardship to the voters. The long lines weren’t there before; only the confusion in locating the names of voters. Can’t the COMELEC buy enough machines for the number of voters, and put some on reserve in cases of breakdowns? Then, there is the suspicion that some machines were programmed in favor of certain candidates.

Second, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) should be stricter in accepting voters. The voter’s ID would have eliminated the risk of a person voting in lieu of another voter, but many of these ID’s have disappeared (or were not claimed by voters according to COMELEC). Imagine the number of ballots filled up by unscrupulous people at the end of the voting period, simply because the BEIs have no way of checking if they are the right persons in the voters list. This is especially true for voters who are said to be “illiterate”, where there is no way of checking if the thumbprint is similar compared to checking the signatures. Anyway, there were talks about “watchers” in some precincts having a heyday filling up the extra or unused ballots in favor of their candidates and feeding these to the PCOS machines with the BEIs watching helplessly.

Finally, eliminating the garbage caused by the election exercise has not been solved. Children still distribute flyers which many voters just toss away; while candidates add more posters outside the voting area. What is left is a pile of garbage waiting to be thrown away the day after election. Shouldn’t this garbage be the responsibility of the candidates?

These are lessons learned in the conduct of the recently concluded mid-term elections. Hopefully, we learn from this experience and work to improve the process in time for the 2016 Presidential Elections.

Eva Kimpo-Tan is the editor-in-chief of The Mindanao Cross, the oldest Catholic weekly in the southern Philippines.