At the Polls: Chaos, Confusion, Violence, Anger

The Philippine police said the country’s May 10 elections had been relatively peaceful, although election violence increased by 178 percent on election day. National police chief Hermogenes Ebdane said 96 people died in election-related violence since December; this figure, he said, is lower than in previous elections. But other official figures dispute Ebdane’s number; they said more than 100 had died, making the 2004 elections the most violent in two decades.

By Carlos H. Conde
Bulatlat.com

Five polling precincts are packed inside this small classroom (left) at the Payatas Elementary School in Quezon City. Even the toilet (right) has been converted into another precinct. 

 Photos by Arkibong Bayan and Aubrey Makilan

Elizabeth Cueme was upbeat when she went out to vote on Monday. “This is the first time that I voted,” she said. She chose a “born again” evangelist, Bro. Eddie Villanueva, who ran for president against the incumbent, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Cueme, a 28-year-old nanny from Pasig City, said she had been upset when the candidates for president were ridiculed in the media early in the campaign. “We may have become the joke of the world because of this election but I think this is still the best thing we have,” she said.

All across the country, such optimism was evident on May 10. From ethnic minorities in the south who came down the mountains to vote for candidates they hardly even knew, to simple folk like Cueme who found political salvation in a charismatic preacher, the election – notwithstanding the predictable incidents of violence and fraud -- was a wellspring of hope in a country that has been benighted for so long by so much poverty and strife.

Wouldn’t it be nice, then, if every voter was like Cueme? Unfortunately, no. Thousands of them, in fact, couldn’t even vote.

One of them is Erlinda Villamia, Cueme’s friend. Villamia, a 25-year-old househelp, was furious when she couldn’t find her name on the voters list at the Oranbo Elementary School in Pasig City. “I came all the way here to vote, only to find that my name is not here!” she exclaimed to an election officer.

When the officer told her to go to the Commission on Elections to complain, Villamia shot back: “Forget about it! No wonder our country is in such a mess!”

What a mess, indeed.

Several voters complained that the “indelible ink” being used to mark the index finger of a voter -- to prevent him from voting again -- washes off easily. “Flying voters,” or voters who vote more than once in different areas, are a common problem in Philippine elections.

Vote-buying

Some areas reported incidents of vote buying, with voters being offered between P330 (about $6) and P500 ($9) in exchange for their votes. Television and wire reports said some voters who agreed to be bribed brought with them paper and carbon sheets as they filled their ballots inside the classrooms. They then used the duplicate as proof that they had voted as agreed.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) declared a failure of elections in several towns across the country.

Violence was also rampant. By Monday afternoon, at least 20 people were killed and several others were injured in separate election-related attacks in a number of areas throughout the country, according to officials and news reports.

Groups monitoring the election reported cases of stolen ballots and vote buying. The Comelec declared a failure of elections in several towns after it failed to deliver election paraphernalia, especially in far-flung areas.

These incidents notwithstanding, Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos said the elections had gone smoothly. “So far, so good,” he said when asked by reporters to assess the conduct of the polls.

The police said it had been relatively peaceful, although election violence increased by 178 percent on election day. National police chief Hermogenes Ebdane said 96 people died in election-related violence since December; this figure, he said, is lower than in previous elections. But other official figures dispute Ebdane’s number; they said more than 100 had died, making the 2004 elections the most violent in two decades.

Police, military and election watchdogs reported that as of late Monday afternoon, 20 people, most of them campaign workers of local candidates, were killed in separate attacks in a number of towns and cities nationwide. Grenades were used in many of the attacks.

Mindanao

In Sulu province, in the south, three Marines were injured by a landmine while escorting election officials. In another province, Marines took over the polling centers in 12 towns due to the threat of violence.

A grenade exploded inside the office of a town treasurer in central Philippines, destroying election materials. In another town, a fire destroyed a school building where the voting was supposed to take place.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s spokesperson, Ignacio Bunye, cautioned the media that the political opposition could be projecting a violent and chaotic election in order to bolster their accusation that Ms. Arroyo’s camp committed fraud.

The polls closed at 3 p.m. Monday and early results reported by the networks show Ms. Arroyo enjoying a slim lead over her main rival, actor Fernando Poe Jr.

It could take days, even weeks, for the final results to be known, although the results of an exit poll done by a polling company and the country’s largest television network would be announced 3 a.m. on Tuesday. The National Citizens Movement for Free Elections, a nongovernment election watchdog, said it would announce results of its “quick count” in a week.

The election watchdog blamed the commission for Monday’s bedlam. “The first half of the day is one of difficulty and considerable amount of confusion,” Guillermo Luz, the group’s secretary general, told reporters. “Someone should be prosecuted for this,” Mr. Luz added, referring to the disenfranchisement of voters due to the commission’s faulty listing system.

Teachers are doing the counting of the votes by hand, in classrooms with poor ventilation. In one town in the south, teachers used candles Monday night to count the ballots.

The counting is tedious; each ballot is scrutinized and each entry is read out loud, then written on a tally sheet tacked to a blackboard. Early this year, the Supreme Court stopped the computerization of the elections after it found out irregularities in the multi-million dollar project.

43 million voters

The Philippines has more than 43 million voters. At stake are the positions of president, vice president, 12 senators, 212 congressmen and more than 17,000 local positions, from provincial governor down to town councilor.

Fraud is common during the counting of votes. In the past, ballot boxes disappeared after suspicious blackouts. The poll body expected this same thing to happen so it ordered teachers and poll watchers to bring flashlights. Also in past elections, politicians bribed some of these teachers in order to shave or pad votes.

The political parties deployed tens of thousands of volunteers to watch the counting. The National Citizens Movement for Free Elections had likewise fielded some 400,000 volunteers nationwide to monitor the process. Some 230,000 soldiers and police officers were also deployed. Monitors from different countries, including 125 from the U.S., were also here to observe the elections.

Monday’s election marked the first time since the ouster of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 that an incumbent ran for president. The Constitution says the president can only serve one term. (Ms. Arroyo is finishing the term of deposed president Joseph Estrada.)

This is also the first time that the Philippines allowed absentee-voting for Filipinos overseas. About 200,000 of the 350,000 overseas voters had cast their votes.

On Tuesday, an exit poll by a polling firm and a television network showed President Arroyo in the lead against her main rival, actor Fernando Poe Jr. Other so-called “quick counts” showed the same trend, even though only less than 20 percent of the votes had been tallied so far.

But this early, her opponents are crying fraud. Poe called a press conference Tuesday to denounce the administration for allegedly cheating in the election. “They say the voter turnout was 80 percent. That is not true because many were not able to vote,” he said. His supporters insisted that he was leading. They were already talking about holding protest rallies around Manila.

Arroyo called on her rivals to “leave behind the rancor” that dominated the election. “All must now conduct themselves with prudence, sobriety and respect for the democratic process,” she said Tuesday. Bulatlat.com

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