EDITORIAL — The world is watching

The midterm elections on Monday, according to MalacaÒang, will showcase ìthe vibrancy of Philippine democracy.î At the same time, MalacaÒang urged candidates and the public to show the world that the country is capable of holding peaceful and orderly elections.

Malacañang issued the call as more than 200 people from other countries sought government accreditation to observe the elections. Will their presence make a difference? The country has such observers in every electoral exercise, with even more foreigners looking over our shoulders during a presidential election. Even in the darkest days of the dictatorship, Ferdinand Marcos invited and welcomed foreigners as election observers.

As we have seen, the presence of foreign observers never discouraged election-related violence, deterred fraud or eradicated a culture where candidates are determined to win by hook or by crook, through guns, goons and gold. Foreign observers failed to detect vote-padding and vote-shaving operations or dagdag-bawas. Their presence never prevented certain election officials from colluding with candidates in poll fraud. No one has managed to end vote-buying in its many guises. Not even the most blatant buyers of votes are punished.

Filipinos should be working for honest and orderly elections not because there will be international observers in the country, but to make democracy work for the nationís good. In the Information Age, every country can be under instant global scrutiny around the clock, with images flashed worldwide in real time. In a democracy, a free election should be the principal expression of people power, paving the way for a government of, for and by the people. Thwarting the peopleís will, over and over in every electoral exercise, through various forms of cheating and other poll irregularities, can only weaken a democracy.

Other countries have been conducting free, honest and orderly elections for decades, with the results known in a matter of days or even hours, with nothing like the violence, vote-buying and cheating that mar every Philippine electoral exercise. Within hours after the close of polling booths, the world knew that France had picked Nicolas Sarkozy over Segolene Royal. There was sporadic violence across France to protest Sarkozyís victory, but even Royal accepted the results and did not cry fraud.

Holding free, fair and orderly elections is the mark of a strong, mature democracy. It is something that freedom-loving Filipinos must aspire to achieve, whether or not the world is watching.