The vote

WHAT does democracy mean without a credible election?

It would mean nothing. The conduct of an election is the yardstick by which a democratic system can be measured on its success or failure because the vote embodies the people’s power to choose their servant-leaders.

This is why the role of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is particularly crucial. It is the Comelec’s responsibility to keep the polls free from all kinds of fraud – and that means not just election day itself, but the entire process leading up to the actual casting of votes. A rigged poll is a betrayal of the people’s right to decide, a Comelec falling short of its mandate.

The influx of people at the Comelec office in Dagupan in the last days of registration for the May 2013 election was not unique. In many parts of the country, Comelec offices were swamped with people who, for one reason or another, sensible or not, chose to wait until the last minute. What is disturbing about the situation in Dagupan was not just the long queues and resulting bedlam, but the apparent anomalous circumstances. There were reported civilians who had backdoor access and free reign in the Comelec premises, signed registration forms that served as privileged passes, troupes of flying voters herded in, a peace-and-order worker assuming a task supposedly for a Comelec employee. An investigation is in order. A credible election would not be possible without a credible Comelec.

Remember Garci? Is the Comelec still for sale?

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Akbayan

AKBAYAN is supposed to be a party-list group for the “marginalized and underrepresented” in our society. How come it had a staggering election war chest of P112 million in the 2010 elections? Some P14 million of that came from President Aquino’s three sisters, with Kris Aquino alone donating P10 million.

On record, Akbayan raised more funds than the mainstream Nacionalista Party of losing presidential candidate Manny Villar in 2010. Today, P-Noy’s Cabinet has Akbayan members, such as the chiefs of the National Anti-Poverty Commission and the Commission on Human Rights, undersecretary of political affairs, a GSIS board member and as commissioners of the National Youth Commission and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor. Over the last few weeks, the Comelec has been purging fake party-list groups. Is Akbayan exempted?

Just asking.

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