Filipinos are awaiting Philippine election results after trooping enthusiastically to the polls Monday to elect a new president, Congress, and local governments, in what is turning out to be a gauge of the maturity of their country’s democracy.
The elections are a test not only of how Filipinos would like to see their country governed but also of the mechanism for choosing their government. For the first time, a computerized vote-counting system is being used, in an effort to stamp out the vote-rigging that has caused chaos in the past.
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) estimated that 85 percent of the 50 million-strong electorate turned out to vote, reflecting in part public interest in the novelty of computerization.
COMELEC said only about 400 of the more than 80,000 machines malfunctioned during the polling. But there were reports of vote-counting machines malfunctioning in many voting precincts, in some cases causing ill-tempered scenes.
Many voters complained about waiting in long lines, wilting in the scorching sun, as voters ahead of them struggled to understand new, computer-compatible ballot forms. COMELEC kept the precincts open for an extra hour to accommodate the crowds.
The computerized vote-counting system has therefore been under intense scrutiny.
But the real test began only when the polls closed, because that was when the machines began to transmit the results to central servers. COMELEC expects complete results within 72 hours.
Any delay is bound to raise suspicion that somehow the system is being manipulated, and any such suspicions are likely to pose another test of the maturity of Philippine democracy.
Another bane of Philippine elections is violence. The security forces said nine people had been killed in election-related violence on polling day.