Implementing practical and legal guidelines for village elections

(Part III - North Greenhills 39 Years Ago)

This is the third and last article on “Saving our Village” based on North Greenhills consultation with Justice Demetriou. Due to recurrence of crisis in the past two years, former NGA president Atty. Don Alviar (together with other past presidents since 1972 and concerned residents), further recommends to all the residents their right to validate their own proxies in the new village circular “True Voice.”

The right of the resident to disagree with the political persuasion of the current president or chairman Sirs NGA President, NGA Comelec Chairman:

This is to call your attention to two important matters regarding the elections to be conducted on December 10, 2011, to elect five members to serve in the 2012 to 2013 Board. These concerns are:

THE FORM OF THE PROXY, NGA COMELEC FORM # 3 – The Proxy Form as distributed contains the following sentence, and we quote: “In the absence of the above named proxy, this authority is vested on the current President of the Association or in his absence, the presiding Chairman of such meeting.”

This sentence should be deleted as it compels the resident proxy giver to authorize the President or Chairman to vote the proxy in the absence of the person named as proxy, even if he does not agree with the political persuasion of the President or Chairman.

Any resident who wishes to give a proxy must have the choice whether or not he will authorize the President or Chairman in the absence of his proxy designated. Therefore, any resident may give a proxy in the form that he wants. The Board cannot insist on using only the proxy form that they have distributed.

VALIDATION OF THE PROXY – Rule III, Sections A & B, which we quote hereunder for easy reference provides:

a) Validation of proxies shall be conducted by the COMELEC by calling the resident at their residence or through other means of communication.

b) The COMELEC shall have the sole power and prerogative to validate all proxy forms submitted. The COMELEC shall indicate in the duplicate proxy forms the date and time of its approval and shall keep the register of all Proxies validated, indicating therein the sequential number of the proxy giver and in whose favor it is given.

OBSERVATIONS: 1.) There is no provision in the proxy form where the COMELEC will attest to the validation of the proxy. As a matter of fact there is no provision at all where any member of the COMELEC can sign and date the validation. 2.) The rules provide for validation by calling the residence of the resident or by any other means. The process of validation must state if the COMELEC making the validation called the resident or used some other means to validate the proxy. This is necessary in order to determine how the validation was made in the absence of a master list of residents with their authenticated signatures. 3.) Absent such certification, the only way a proxy can be validated is by a public document through a notarized instrument. 4.) Submission by the member of either a photocopy of that portion of his passport where his signature appears or photocopies of his/her driver’s license or voter’s ID or SSS or any acceptable ID where his/her signature appears.

Safety of the ballot boxes

As to the Casting of Ballots, it should be made clear with respect to qualified voters who are physically present to cast their votes, there is no need for comparing their signature with that appearing in the specimen card. All that is needed is that when he/she signs to register, he/she must show an acceptable ID bearing his signature which should be compared with the signature he/she registers.

Mention must also be made that the registration, casting and canvassing of ballots should be held in an open space so that interested parties and members beyond or outside the polling area may still have an unimpeded view of the entire proceedings.

The Ballot box should have two padlocks with two different keys, one key shall be kept by the Chairman of the NGA COMELEC and the other by the SEC or National COMELEC representative with their seal.

The Ballot box and its contents should be preserved and kept in a safe and secure place under the custody of NGA COMELEC for at least two months.

Protect your rights - go out and vote!

The moment the above rules are implemented then our election should get a better board to represent them.

As much as possible each resident should show up and personally cast his/her ballot. Election is a major event of a good neighborhood. Proxies should be avoided.

PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. GO OUT AND VOTE!