Don't be pessimistic about poll automation - Gordon advises

Senator Richard J. Gordon (Ind.) today advised cynics to give poll automation a chance instead of predicting the failure of the automated May 2010 presidential elections.

Gordon, father of election modernization in the country and principal author of Republic Act (RA) 9369 or the amended Automated Elections System Law, noted that one of the factors that hinder the development of our country is the people's tendency to reject new ideas.

"We have been left behind by our other neighbors in Asia in the race to progress and development because we have walls in our minds that stop us from embracing new ideas. Whenever there is something untried is proposed, we immediately think that it will not work," he said.

"Look at the poll automation project. For years, we have been complaining of the fraud-ridden manual elections in the country. Now, here is our chance to get rid of election fraud and how do we react? Various cynics predict failure of elections if we go automated," he added.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has recently concluded the month-long bidding process and awarded the poll automation contract to the lowest responsive bidder. The winning bidder will provide the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) technology, an improved Optical Mark Reader (OMR) system, to be used in next year's elections.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections saw the successful pilot-testing of poll automation in August last year. Two technologies - the OMR and the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) were used.

The exercise was orderly and generally peaceful. The results were also known within a shorter period of time, compared to the other elections in the ARMM and in the whole country.

Gordon stressed that 111 years since the nation declared independence from foreign rule, the country has yet to be really democratic, especially in the system used to choose the leaders of the country.

"We recently commemorated 111 years of independence from colonial rule; however, we have yet to free our nation from the shackles of electoral fraud and cheating; we have yet to see election winners proclaimed without a stain of doubt that they cheated; we have yet to see an election that is honest, clean, speedy and credible," he said.

"Now that the automation of our electoral system is underway, we must get ourselves involved in this process of change. We have to show to ourselves and to the world that the Filipino will fight for his right to choose his leaders. We ought to make automation happen instead of giving in to pessimism," he added.