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By YVONNE T. CHUA

AN election watchdog has this piece of advice for the Commission on Elections: Don’t buy the counting machines used in the May 10 elections.

Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER), instead urged the Comelec to just lease the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines amid a suggestion from the Venezuelan firm Smartmatic for the poll body to buy the 80,000 units it had leased for P8 billion for this year’s elections.

Smartmatic president Cesar Flores made the pitch at a press conference upon the arrival of Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, its “Ambassador for Transparency.” He had said the Comelec would save billions of pesos if it bought the machines now for future use. The lease contract with Smartmatic gives Comelec the option to buy the technology for P2 billion.
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By ELLEN TORDESILLAS and YOUTHVOTEPHILIPPINES

WHATEVER the final outcome of the tightly contested vice presidential race, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay has made history by being the first local official to be possibly catapulted to a top national position, just a breath away from the presidency. Unlike another former mayor, Joseph Estrada, Binay bypassed Congress in his quest for a top post.

But Binay’s journey from being a far third at the start of the campaign to becoming the frontrunner in the national canvassing does not surprise fellow mayors and other local executives who say he prepared for it long ago. The Makati mayor made smart use of vast resources and backed these up with an underground operation that included an in-your-face infiltration of a rival political organization.
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By MINDANEWS

DAVAO CITY .—The “new” set of Mindanao’s top officials is not exactly new.

Of 25 Mindanao governors, 16 are reelected, two are brothers of the outgoing governors and the rest are “recycled” or those who ran for other posts after completing, usually, a nine-year, three-term service.

Of 33 city mayors, 19 are reelected, five are either sons or daughters of the outgoing and the rest are “recycled.”  (Mindanao’s elected: The city mayors)

Of 57 congressional seats, 18 will be occupied by the same representatives while the rest are relatives of the governor or mayor. (Mindanao’s elected: The representatives)

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By LUZ RIMBAN

THE Commission on Elections is partly to blame for election-related violent incidents because it acted too late to put critical areas, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), under its control, said an election watchdog group.

The Consortium on Electoral Reform (CER) said the Comelec ran out of time to implement Resolution 8887, which was issued only on May 8, just two days before the elections.

The Resolution creates special task forces composed of police, military and Comelec officials to contain violence in the whole of ARMM, as well as the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Abra, and several other towns. But because it was issued at the eleventh hour, there was no time to send more military or police forces to these critical areas, especially to the ARMM.

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By JONALYN FORTUNO and PAULINE DYCOCO

WITH the upcoming special elections in 11 areas, a youth group is urging all sectors to continue monitoring the polls, especially in ensuring that all election returns (ERs) be accounted for.

“While these areas are now undergoing or are set to undergo special elections, we call on the public to remain vigilant against election fraud and violence,” Youth Vote Philippines said in a statement.

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By PAULINE DYCOCO

THE counting of votes may have been quick, but the country’s first-ever automated elections were far from being successful.

This was the sentiment of outgoing Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca, who lost her reelection bid to Faustino Dy III, a scion of the powerful “Dy Dynasty” in the province.

“Define successful? Just because nabilang agad (the counting was quick)?” Padaca said in a press conference on Tuesday at the Ateneo De Manila University.
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By CAROLYN ARGUILLAS
Mindanews

BULUAN, Maguindanao.  – Governor-elect Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu is requesting the National Statistics Office (NSO) to have a special census for Maguindanao.

“I want a physical count ng mga tao (of people). One by one,” Mangudadatu said.

“Hindi naman ito (This is not about) vengeance,” he told MindaNews late Saturday afternoon in his brother’s residence. “Niloloko nila yung gobyerno eh (they’re fooling government),” he said.

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By BOOMA CRUZ
Courtesy of PROBE PROFILES

ON election eve, media tore down the windows of Precinct 175-A of Sitio Alto, Barangay Central Azucarera de Tarlac Elementary School. The two adjacent giant square casements with horizontal rails blocked the perfect view of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine stationed at the voting center. Leading presidential aspirant, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, was to cast his ballot at Precinct 175-A, a small classroom that was the center of everybody’s attention.

As early as May 7, television network technicians trooped to the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Elementary School to set up and prepare for May 10 live telecasts. Victory was up in the air. With a commanding 22-point lead in respectable surveys on election week, Aquino was considered by media the likely 15^th president of the republic.
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By YVONNE T. CHUA, LUZ RIMBAN and AVIGAIL OLARTE

MONDAY’S election was supposed to have ushered Filipino voters into the modern age of computerized voting, but the results show the country will remain stuck with feudal-style politics as dynasties secured elective positions at the provincial, congressional and local levels.

In at least 34 of the country’s 80 provinces, political families won tandem posts—one family member winning as governor and another as representative—in a new configuration that will give them a lock on power for years to come.

In around 20 of the country’s cities, the winning candidates for mayor had relatives also winning as representative, governor or both.

More than 80 percent of election results have been transmitted from the polling precincts.
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