By LUZ RIMBAN
A NATIONWIDE lawyers’ group said Monday the first-ever automated elections in the country caused widespread disenfranchisement because of delays voters had to endure, lining up and voting, as well as problems with the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
The Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente), a nongovernment organization accredited as one of the citizens’ arms of the Commission on Election, estimated that voters in about 70 percent of all precincts in the country went through experiences of long queues and a slow voting procedure.
Lawyers Roan Libarios and Carlos Medina of Lente made this assessment as the voting day drew to a close. Despite the problems, though, Libarios called the May 10 elections “successful” and commended the teachers for shepherding voters through the country’s first automated polls.
Lente lawyers attributed the disenfranchisement to the absence of a common management procedure for queuing, causing inefficiency and confusion. As a result, a common experience was that in some places, voters had to wait as long as six hours for the chance to cast their votes, some giving up the wait in disappointment.
Many voters, they said, exercised what they called “self-disenfranchisement,” having given up trying to vote after hours of waiting.
Medina called the disenfranchisement “a cause for alarm.”
But the extent of the disenfranchisement would be difficult to estimate without official figures on voter turnout.
In a field of eight presidential candidates, it is likely votes will be spread out, resulting in the election of a minority president, one who will not get majority of votes, or even in a tight race. In such a situation, all votes matter.
Lente, which will get the 29th copy of the official election returns, is set to conduct a “validation count” to confirm the counts being conducted by the Comelec as well as by another citizens’ arm, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.
Lente said it would be working with the National Movement for Free Elections which has had a long experience conducting quick counts.