Voters Education for 2010 Poll

The Philippines will have its first automated election in grand scale this coming May 10, 2010. It is automation in epic proportion since the 2010 Poll is a national and local election.  As such, various organizations, watchdogs and concern individuals have expressed fear for failure of such constitutional exercise. The fear is understandable since this is the country’s first automation and people are still haunted by the Garci’s scandal that plagued the 2004 national exercise.

As has been said, this is the country’s first and it is but right that a massive campaign on educating the electorate must be undertaken. Sadly enough, people were only asked to join a one-day orientation in my town. I believe this is also of the same scenario in the other parts of the country.

We are grateful that large TV networks had taken part in the education drive for voters. The first ad I saw regarding educating the voters on the new election system “how to” was the song “Ang Bilog” that was endorsed by the Sex Bomb Dancers. The other ad was with DJ Mo Twister telling grandma how simple the voting process would be. I also heard Rey Langit, a Lakas-CMD-Kampi candidate for Senate, giving tips to radio listeners.

All the mentioned ways of informing the voting public is not enough. These infomercials can only reach those people with TV and are avid listeners of FM and AM stations. My concern is the people who live in the mountain areas and those who are in the provinces. I once heard during my last visit in my province in Surigao del Sur that if you vote for 10 candidates for senate instead of 12, your vote for the 10 candidates will be declared invalid.

Posters printed and distributed by COMELEC is a potent tool to educate our voters. On the ground, some people who listen to radio and watch TV could not understand Tagalog particularly those from Visayas and Mindanao. We should not disregard this fact. Some can read Tagalog terms but they lack understanding of the language or the message. Posters can be reproduced and translated into the dialect of a particular place and can distributed/posted in public places where people converge.

Probably 95 percent of the youth voting population is familiar on how the system works. The youth are tech-savvy but the older generation actually hates computer. Some even believe that the system can be hacked but most of them own a credit card and ATM cards. Some are even shopping online.

The success of the 2010 May Poll will define our future. This is the right time that we believe in the system. This can solve the dagdag-bawas problem which cheated my lolo in the 1992 election. I was young then but I can still remember how they manipulated the results of the counting. We should start the automating our election process now for the same questions will be thrown and similar fears will be felt if we forgo this chance.

The questions can be answered and fears be allayed with massive education drive across the country.