Echaves: Acceptance qualified

WE thought we would be the earliest at yesterday’s polling precincts at the Abellana National School (ANS).

Wrong. Others were there earlier. But fortunately, my senior citizen status took precedence and in just ten minutes, I had cast my ballot, reviewed the voting receipt, dropped it into its assigned box, and headed back home.

In Precinct 848A, though, the election inspector manning the vote counting machine (VCM) was too casual, not discreet, in handling the print-out. As the voter’s receipt slid out, the contents stood in full display and everyone behind or standing above her could read the names voted.

I asked the election person why she did not bother to fold down the receipt as it slid out, the way the election inspector did in Precinct 821A. I explained how it was done.

But the woman faked poor eyesight; I didn’t believe her, of course. Before I asked her, she and two others beside her even had an eyeful of the other voters’ receipts.

I’m sure that whichever candidates they favored, certainly had status reports delivered real-time, faster than any operation quick count hereabouts.

I must thank Comelec, though, for making provisions to spare the elderly and the PWD’s from unnecessary health risks. The stairs to the second floor were narrow; so were the hallways.

Luckily, a roving teacher had a keen eye for voters in wheelchairs or with other special needs. Instead of letting them line up outside their assigned precincts, she led them to a shaded area where they could wait.

The voters’ representatives brought the voters’ valid ID’s to the polling precinct, received the blank ballots and signed these out for the voters. Then the teacher, accompanied this time by a poll watcher, brought the ballots to the voters who proceeded to shading their choices on the ballot.

After inking the voter’s right forefinger, his representative returns to the room to feed the ballot into the VCM, and reads for accuracy the voter’s receipt. And there the process ended.

Until yesterday, I had always picked my candidates from any political group. The party didn’t matter to me, because our so-called political parties are really political conveniences and personality-driven.

This time, though, after many years of paralysis in the city council, of mothballed or stymied projects because of obstructionists masquerading as fiscalizers, I decided to vote straight Team Rama.

It’s time the city mayor, hopefully Michael Rama again, got his own men in place. Otherwise, it shall be analysis paralysis all over again.

On the national scale, I went totally Roxas-Robredo, despite what the poll survey results showed. If the election results bare other winners, I shall not lead a revolution.

After all, I have no wherewithal to fund such upheaval. Neither do I proclaim myself as “the appointed daughter of God.”

But Bongbong Marcos as, God forbid, vice-president will be a bitter pill to swallow, he of the infamous family known for the excesses and abuses of Martial Rule.

Human rights lawyer Rene Saguisag may yet prove himself right, that a Duterte-Bongbong tandem can only mean the beginning of decay.

(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)

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