EDITORIAL - Time to prepare

In two years Filipinos will again troop to polling centers for the midterm elections. By this time, the Commission on Elections should already be ramping up preparations for the 2013 polls. New commissioners have been named to the Comelec, and the poll body must quickly settle a key issue: whether the elections will be fully automated, and if so, which system and machines will be used.

After the success of the country’s first fully automated elections in May last year, Filipinos will not take kindly to the prospect of returning to the Jurassic manual system that has long been associated with poll fraud. The 2010 general elections were not entirely glitch-free, and there’s no guarantee that the consortium that won the contract, Smartmatic-TIM, will again handle poll automation in 2013. Ensuring the integrity of the vote starts in the bidding for a new automation contract.

After a successful bid is conducted, the Comelec must scrutinize the counting machines and the automated system, and then put the machines through several tests. These are on top of other vital preparations for the elections, including cleaning up voters’ lists - something that automation failed to accomplish. The Comelec must also review the clustering system, which made many voters including presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III wait in line for up to four hours to cast their vote.

While key national positions are not at stake in the 2013 vote, most cases of election violence, including the worst - the Maguindanao massacre - arise from local political disputes. As part of preparations for 2013, the government must intensify efforts to curb poll-related violence, which can erupt many months before the official start of the campaign period. President Aquino must impress upon his law enforcement and security officials that he will hold them accountable for the peace and order situation in their respective jurisdictions.

Many of the tasks ahead the Comelec has been trying to do for a long time. Now it has two years to perform the tasks before the next elections. There’s no time to waste.