By TESSA JAMANDRE
VIGILANCE.
This was what an American election watchdog expert and leader of a voters’ advocacy group said must be maintained even as the Philippines will automate its national elections for the first time in May 2010.
Kay Maxwell, executive director of the nonprofit World Affairs Forum and the 16th president of the League of Women Voters of the U.S., told a lecture organized by the Harvard Club of the Philippines on Wednesday that it takes more than just machines and computers to make an election credible.
“No election system is perfect. Vigilance must be maintained to guard against fraud and corruption,” said Maxwell, who also chairs the U.S. League of Women Voters Education Fund.
Student participants asked about the Commission on Elections’ timeline for voter education as Maxwell stressed how crucial it is for voters to be familiar with the new system before they can actually use it on election day.
Comelec has less than 10 months before the elections, and the information campaign has hardly begun.
Other participants were concerned if the Comelec could be trusted with a software that will count the votes. Coming from a “Hello, Garci” scandal, fears of an automated cheating were expressed.
“Faith in the institution is essential but it is also earned over time,” Maxwell said, citing the imperative for a credible election.
Joining her in the panel of speakers were former Ambassador to the Vatican Henrietta De Villa, also head of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), and Comelec Commissioner Lucenito Tagle representing Comelec Chairman Jose Melo.
The Harvard Club of the Philippines is composed of alumni from the different Harvard Schools: Kennedy, Business, Law, Medical, Public Health, Education, Arts and Sciences and the Harvard College. Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes is president of the club and concurrent president of the Harvard-Kennedy School of Government Alumni Association of the Philippines.
Maxwell was invited through the American Embassy’s Thomas Jefferson Information Center.
