Fifty million voters. Eighty thousand candidates. Seventy thousand clustered precincts. Eleven hours of voting. Today is Election Day in the Philippines.
After 90 days of campaigning, voters will finally choose the country’s next leaders. A new president will be proclaimed, hopefully, in the next two days. Filipinos will also vote for a vice president, 12 senators, two members of congress (district and party list representatives), and local government officials.
This is a historic election mainly because the Philippines has decided to ditch the century-old slow manual elections in favour of a modern poll automation system. This is also the first time that an incumbent president is running for a lower position—President Gloria Arroyo is aiming to win a congressional seat in her home province.
Precincts opened around 7a.m. Technical glitches were encountered at several polling centres, but voting proceeded peacefully in most areas of the country. Elections were delayed in several polling places where voting machines malfunctioned. Senior citizens were the first batch of voters who were allowed to vote. Based on Twitter reports, voters are complaining of long lines and slow voting procedure. Some are worried if voting centres can accommodate all voters who will troop to poll centres today.
A slow voting process is expected as this is the first time that voting machines are being used in the elections. In addition, the new ballot design may contribute to slow voting since voters with poor eyesight may encounter difficulty in reading the names of candidates in the ballot. Voters are also instructed to be extra careful in filling out the ballot so that it won’t be rejected by the voting machine.
Precincts will close at 6pm, but elections will be extended if there are still voters near the voting centre.
As in previous elections, vote buying has been reported throughout the country. Some voters were even paid to remain in their homes so that they won’t vote for certain candidates. Activists in Southern Tagalog region accused some soldiers of intimidating leaders and supporters of left-leaning organizations.
It has been reported that voting machines were deliberately destroyed in Iloilo and Davao. Perhaps this was the handiwork of desperate candidates. Bomb explosions were reported in Maguindanao Province.
More reports of fraud and violence will continue to be reported in the next few hours. Bloggers are helping journalists in reporting their observations of the conduct of the polls in various provinces and cities.
Despite the pre-election reports of postponed elections and isolated incidents of fraud and violence, it’s hoped that elections in the Philippines will produce satisfactory and credible results at the end of the day.