We really cannot have candidates actually winning the elections, but eventually losing in the count
Is it too early to talk about the upcoming midterm elections in 2025?
For the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), no, it isn’t.
For the fierce advocate of free and fair elections in this country, there’s not much time to lose in making the fully automated 2025 midterm polls a political exercise that truly upholds democratic principles.
The poll watchdog wants the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to observe “the standards of transparency, cost-effectiveness, accessibility and inclusivity, reliability, security, safety, and fairness” in the 2025 elections.
For the Comelec to show it really upholds transparency, Namfrel said, it should publicize every step of the upcoming election process.
The public must be able to see and understand every step of the election process and the Automated Election System (AES), and it must be clear who is responsible for each step, what they have to do, and how they will be held accountable.
For Namfrel, “transparency means the auditability of the AES and the entire election process from beginning to end.”
It means that an independent verification and examination by entities outside the Comelec would ensure the accuracy and integrity of the electoral process.
The poll watchdog also emphasized that “all steps must be traceable” from the ballot filled up by voters up to the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), the canvassing and consolidation.
This would require “the maintenance of an audit trail and comprehensive documentation, including all logs, throughout the electoral process.”
This also requires that all important actions, transactions, and decisions connected to the automated system should be documented and made available to the public on the Comelec website.
The poll watchdog emphasized this point apparently because a group of former government officials filed a petition to disqualify Smartmatic last month from joining Comelec’s future bidding processes, citing “material discrepancies” in the electoral returns counted between the precincts and the Comelec Transparency Server.
Namfrel also suggests prudent spending of public funds for the upcoming elections.
It wants the government to put in place several procurement law reforms to encourage more suppliers and contractors to join the biddings of the Comelec and “level the playing field” of the procurement process.
That’s because since 2010, only controversial technology provider Smartmatic Philippines has won all biddings conducted by the Comelec.
Namfrel also wants the upcoming budget deliberations in Congress to decide on the budget allocation for the Comelec for the 2025 polls.
This would determine how much Comelec can spend on the procurement of equipment for the planned 2025 Automated Election System.
The poll watchdog said that all AES software should “not be proprietary” and should use a General Public License or Election Technology Public License to ensure that it can be reviewed by everyone.
There should also be greater competition in the procurement process to ensure that the supplier with the greatest capability can deliver what’s needed “at a low, but not the lowest price.”
With the procurement for the automated elections scheduled in 2024, Namfrel suggested two procurement reforms that it said would open the bidding process to more service providers.
One, Congress should eliminate the provision demanding prior use of the system in other countries, which hinders Filipino service providers from being considered.
And two, the Government Procurement Policy Board should exempt the AES from the Single Largest Completed Contract requirement, which currently disqualifies potential bidders with contracts below a certain percentage of the approved budget.
“Removal of these requirements will open the playing field for local Filipino bidders and further the standard of cost-effectiveness and showcasing the Filipino IT expertise that we so proudly export and/or being used by so many multinational BPO companies operating in the Philippines,” the group said.
In addition, all procured equipment should remain usable for all electoral exercises “instead of these remaining only in storage in between national and local elections.”
The poll watchdog also called on the Comelec to improve its market study and industry surveys and expand the definition of ‘similar contract’ for AES procurement.
It also proposed that the Government Procurement Policy Board should allow the Comelec to create its customized procurement manual.
“Speed of the election results should be considered a low-hanging fruit: it is not enough,” Namfrel said.
Will the Comelec accept these suggestions that we think will go a long way in ensuring free and fair political exercises in the future?
We really hope so.
After all is said and done, we really cannot have candidates actually winning the elections, but eventually losing in the count.
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
