Barangay league pushes for automated polls

Barangay chairmen are pushing for the automation of next year’s midterm elections.

Marinduque provincial board member James Marty Lim, national president of the Liga ng mga Barangay, said Philippine elections "bring death and mayhem nationwide and the killings shall go on unabated unless polls are finally automated."

Lim said the Liga will petition the Supreme Court to allow the use of over 200 automated ballot counting machines purchased in 2003 by the Commission on Elections.

But the court in early 2004 barred their use after it voided the Comelec’s purchase because of anomalies.

The Liga has decided to file the petition after a similar plea filed by an election lawyer was junked by the Supreme Court in line with its 2004 ruling.

"The interests of transacting parties must never be higher than that of the Filipino people," Lim said in a statement.

"The bottom line is that we have to have automated elections next year to minimize vote-counting controversies that ultimately lead to unnecessary poll violence and subsequent fingerpointing by both administration and opposition candidates that foster bitter rivalry even long after elections are over," he said.

President Arroyo has been under pressure since last year following allegations that she cheated in the hotly contested race.

She admitted having an inappropriate conversation with an unidentified election official — believed to be former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano — before Congress declared the winner but denies manipulating the poll outcome.

Last week Mrs. Arroyo successfully fought off a second impeachment bid in the House of Representatives over accusations of electoral fraud and other corruption charges.

"With new witnesses surfacing recently to testify against alleged cheating in the last elections, the country faces another round of exasperating tirades from both the opposition and administration unless something concrete is implemented soon such as automating succeeding elections to accelerate the release of results," Lim said.

In 2003, the Comelec purchased nearly 200 ballot counting machines from MegaPacific eSolutions at the cost of P1.2 billion in line with government efforts to modernize the electoral system.

But the Supreme Court in January 2004 nullified the Comelec’s purchase contract with Mega Pacific, citing irregularities in the contract awarding. — Jaime Laude