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Monday, August 08, 2005
Poll body all set for autonomous region vote
By Ben O. Tesiorna
COTABATO CITY -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is all set for Monday's elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), a poll official said.
Comelec Task Force Maguindanao chief of staff Zacarias Zaragoza said they are all set to conduct the elections in the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, including Marawi City and Maguindanao.
In Maguindanao, about 196,494 registered voters are expected to troop to 1,270 precincts in 28 municipalities.
Zaragoza said they have fielded 19 lawyers who will act as special action officers along with their support staff to conduct the elections in Maguindanao alone.
Comelec is deploying to the Armm area 138 elections officers and lawyers assigned in other places of the country to assist the election officers in Armm polls.
Centralized counting
Zaragoza said they expect the counting to be over within two days. He said this is because of their decision to have a centralized ballot counting.
It was learned that no counting of ballots will be done in the polling precincts. After the closing of precincts at 3 p.m. the ballots will immediately be transported to identified provincial counting centers.
For Maguindanao, Comelec identified five schools located in Cotabato City as the designated counting centers. These are Cotabato Central Pilot School, Sero Elementary School, and Cotabato City National High School (main campus) for the first district.
While Cotabato City State Polytechnic College and Cotabato City National High School (Roxas campus) are designated as the counting centers of Maguindanao's second district.
Earlier, Notre Dame Village National High School and Notre Dame Village Elementary School were designated by Comelec as counting centers but for security reasons it was dropped from the list.
Regional count
The regional counting of the results will be done at the Regional Educational Learning Center of the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex inside the Armm compound along Governor Gutierez Avenue in Cotabato City starting Wednesday.
Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. said Saturday the City Council of Cotabato had already passed a resolution supporting the Comelec's decision to hold the regional canvassing of the Armm election at the Armm compound in Cotabato City.
Abalos said he will meet with Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema to thresh out any problem on the security aspect during the canvassing.
Opposition
Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema opposed a resolution promulgated by the Comelec naming the city as a cluster counting center for votes cast in Maguindanao.
Sema said the counting of ballots here could expose residents to threats of violence.
He said tabulating in Cotabato City the votes cast in Maguindanao would force the undermanned police force to field personnel within and around the periphery of the area of counting, without necessarily being deputized by Comelec, because the city is not part of Armm.
"If we are to project to the whole world that the Armm polls is honest, orderly and peaceful, it is better to do these tabulations in an area inside the autonomous region," Sema was quoted as saying.
Ranking officials of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in schools identified as counting centers here in Cotabato City said they were worried about the safety of their children.
Sema said aside from projected violence, the tabulations would also disturb classes in schools where the ballots would be tallied.
Assurance
Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos and Marine Brigadier General Benjamin Dolorfino, head of Task Force Hope (Honest, Orderly, and Peaceful Elections), assured city residents that security measures are in place adding that a Marine battalion would be deployed to the city.
Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, meanwhile, asked the Comelec to reconsider its plan to put up the Armm Comelec office in his city.
"We have made our position clear that we cannot add these things to our list of responsibilities in trying to protect the city," Lobregat said, referring to the plan to activate an election field office for the Armm in Zamboanga City.
Six candidates are vying for the position of governor, five for vice governor, and several for the 15-seat regional legislative assembly.
Flying voters
Authorities expect Monday's election to be the most peaceful in the Armm history so far.
Many people believe so, too. But its integrity and honesty is another thing.
This is because talks are rife that at least 4,000 flying voters expected to go to polling precincts in the six provinces and city of Armm as reported by a local election watchdog in Marawi City.
The region has 1,057,458 registered voters during the May 2004 national elections. If the number of flying voters estimated is true then one out of ten voters in Armm is not legible to vote.
Dolorfino said his group is ready to expose these flying voters by limiting the number of voters in a precinct to about 10 to 15 voters at a time. In this way flying voters could easily be noticed by authorities, he added.
Checkpoints will also be conducted to ferret out flying voters. Even local executives and barangay chairs would be checked Dolorfino said.
Dolorfino said much is at stake in the Armm elections in the light of allegations of massive cheating in the 2004 polls, particularly in Mindanao.
Litmus test
The Armm vote will be "a litmus test since the whole country will be watching us. If we are successful the elections will have a stabilizing effect" on the political situation Dolorfino said.
Zaragoza, meanwhile, said Monday's election would prove to the whole world that a peaceful and honest election can be done here in Mindanao.
On Sunday, representatives of all candidates were requested by the Comelec to check the election returns that will be used Monday. Unlike before when the election returns were distributed days before the election day, Comelec decided to distribute it on the election day itself so as to avoid cheating.
Dolorfino said if the efforts to keep the elections clean, honest and peaceful fail, "we can no longer be trusted by people of all nations."
"We cannot afford to fail in this electoral exercise, since the stakes are high," he said.
Hope has linked up with civil-society organizations in the region and certain groups from the Moro National Liberation Front to cooperate in ensuring peaceful elections. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
(August 8, 2005 issue)
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Autonomous region polls begin