Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Editorials: Conduct of barangay, SK polls
THE barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections yesterday can be summed up as generally peaceful despite some obvious violation of poll rules.
That is still an achievement considering attempts to postpone the elections.
That means the reasons used by the House of Representatives and Malacañang in earlier pushing for the postponement were nothing but mere ploy of schemers.
But while the holding of the elections was peaceful, whether or not the conduct of the political exercise was admirable is another thing.
Trapo politics
Those observing closely the activity, from the formation of lineups to the conduct of the campaign, actual voting and counting, will not find many redeeming values in it.
The barangay and SK polls, supposedly non-partisan and not money-driven, suffered from the same practices critics of other elections love to condemn.
Almost every barangay showed miniature versions of the so-called trapo politics.
Partisanship was obvious in the loyalties of many barangay candidates to parties and politicians from the municipal, city, provincial and district levels that fielded them.
The same lack of respect for poll laws and the Comelec prevails in the ba-rangays.
Violations
That was easily visible in the materials pasted on walls and hung everywhere during the campaign period and that proliferated around poll precincts on voting day.
Vote-buying, condemnable early on, has become part of the political strategy and warnings raised against it by election officials were reduced to a joke in almost all places.
Worse, even the SK elections were no exception, transforming this supposed training ground of leaders into a factory of traditional politicians.
In some barangays, SK candidates paid higher rates for members’ votes.
New blood
These, though, should not make people totally lose faith in the political exercise.
The observable objectionable acts in yesterday’s elections do not mean that all those that will take the reins in the barangays in the next few days will be incompetent.
New blood will still reinvigorate some areas—like what elections always do.
