Thursday, March 01, 2007 Editorials: Making elections work
WE have heard of these postulates being peddled around during elections and their repetition tends to make people believe these are true.
But the claim about incumbents in some areas having all the advantages and making them virtually unbeatable has hampered the full use of elections as important instruments in the practice of democracy.
This has affected, for example, the setting up of opposition slates in Cebu City and Cebu Province and in some congressional districts, municipalities and cities.
The view that incumbents like Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and clans like the Martinezes and Duranos are unbeatable in their turfs has made potential candidates shy away from the polls.
This has resulted in a setup where on one side there is a good supply of highly qualified personalities and on the other there is a dearth of good candidates brave enough to challenge the incumbents in the elections.
A major factor there is “winnability.” But while assessing the chances of winning makes sense, the process is subjective and does not put much weight on some variables that sometimes make underdogs win.
And it leads to self-inhibition that brings about what voters in many areas have complained about in many elections: limited choices.
People should therefore welcome instead of ridicule attempts by groups or personalities to put up candidates even in areas where incumbents have very obvious advantage in funding and machinery.
They should be encouraged especially in instances where the incumbents are not competent or have become abusive or, worse, corrupt.
If we want to make elections work, we should not dissuade people from running just because we think they do not have a good chance of winning.
No more vigilante-style killings?
There is reason for Cebu City Police Chief Patrocinio Comendador to claim that vigilantes no longer exist in his area of responsibility, after all it has been months since motorcycle-riding men prowled the city’s streets and shot unarmed suspected criminals.
In fact vigilante-style killings stopped even before Comendador assumed the post, and that was weeks before Cebu hosted the 12th Asean Summit.
This shows that those behind the vigilante attacks not only did not want to disturb our hosting of the summit but also deferred to Comendador’s anti-vigilantes stand.
