The Long Awaited Election.............is here at last.

It was a breather so to say, when you have finished your duty as a law abiding citizen. One of this duty is the fullfillment of man's right of suffrage given to all law abiding citizens. Today this duty is once again given emphasis in the just concluded 1st Automated National Elections of the Philippines which happily was not as violent and more credible, unlike in the previous elections. As of now many have given their reactions for and against the said 1st automated elections in the country.

Many have lost their names in the official list of voters. Others were not so lucky because the machine keeps on spitting out their official ballots because of improper filling up. This is the problem many uninformed or indifferent people usually encounters if they don't give a damn on whats happening around them. They should have checked their names in the Comelec registry several months ago or after the official registration have stopped. It is so easy to check the website of the Comelec to know if your name is listed or not.

In our hometown of Palompon, Leyte, it was so peaceful, but of course the usual money that changes hands were there. In previous elections money flowed in the hundreds only, but now we heard that other candidates have doubled the amount into thousand. It is said that many have changed their preference of candidates because of this. Since money stills talk in some places, we can only say that people accepts his lot for a mere number of happy days and don't think about the three years  that the person who gave them money will sit in his post. Well, it is their life, I can't blame them

if that's what they want. They have just to wait for another three years to taste the said amount of money they receive today.

This is the Gabaldon Building of the Palompon South Central School where most of the voters located in the poblacion of the town voted, which include myself. Due to excitement and apprehension, majority of the voters went to the polls very early expecting to vote without any hitch and trouble.

But as the hour goes people are coming and make their presence felt making the automated voting an experience similar to the old days when it is done manually. Partly to blame of course is the system being implemented by the people concerned with the voting itself like the employees of the Department of Educations mainly the teachers, the poll watchers of different political parties, the official watchdogs like the PPCRV and other private organizations helping make the elections credible and clean.

The usual complaint is the long time of waiting to vote due to the presence of so many voters as a result of the clustering of several precincts as a result of reducing cost of the elections itself. But the system itself is one of the major causes of grumbling especially the senior citizens who are made to stand for hours just to vote. They could have numbered the piece of paper, (and call them as their number indicates), distributed to sign the name, precinct number and the number sequence they required before giving them official numbers before they are allowed to enter the polling place.

Well, I just do hope that in the next elections changes should be in place to minimize the number of hours a voter spent in the polling place. These are some of my suggestions to sped up the said election process:

           1. Hi-Technology says that we can already use the "touch screen process" that is common nowadays, especially on mobile cellphones;

            2. We can easily removed the use of hard copies like voters ID card, by totally implementing the "biometrics system" now common in various establishment using the thumbs in entering their establishment;

            3. I have seen this method being used in the Malaysia-Singapore borders, wherein workers coming from Malaysia who works in Singapore just put their thumbs in the machine and voila they are accepted immediately to enter Singapore if they have already records in place in the data base of the Immigration Bureau;

            4.  Cost could definitely go down since you will not be using so many unnecessary things like indelible ink, ballot secrecy folders, shading pen, reduction of BEI's from 3 to 1, official ballots, and other paraphernalia that is being used as of this 1st ever automated election in the Philippines.

            5. Voting could be reduced from one hour to just about five minutes.

Early results in Palompon, Leyte indicates that the winner in the mayoralty race is the former Mayor Ramon Onate against current Mayor Yoly Tupa with a big difference of about 5,000 votes.

 It has been said this is the result of the buying binge of voters. It so happens that the camp of Yoly Tupa blinked first, the result of which is the high attrition that turned into votes. It just shows that the people of Palompon is not yet educated and still can be blinded by dirty money if the source of the said money is evil; and corrupt money if the source comes from hard earned money.