A red flag from the Commission on Elections:
The nefarious practice of voters-for-hire a.k.a flying voters is alive and well despite the use of biometrics in the registration of voters and the upcoming automated elections.
The COMELEC says it has uncovered more than 300,000 double registrants or voters who registered at least twice for the 2010 elections.
Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento says the agency’s barangay affairs and information and technology departments discovered the multiple registrants after auditing biometrics records of some 10 million registered voters in the National Capital Region, Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, Central Luzon and Calabarzon.
It was further discovered that 43,902 individuals were daring enough to register multiple times, with some of the voters possibly using the old style of addresses.
The flying voters are obviously not at all worried by the prospect of being jailed from 1 to 6 years if convicted of their crime.
Why not since such a slap on the wrist is nothing since first offenders would fall under the probation law?!?!
We must concemn and act against brazen attempt to undermine even the digital voter listing system has to be seen in the wider context of our elections being continually bastardized, and public will being thwarted by the cheaters and their corrupt political patrons.
Popularity: 1% [?]
I say, rather than tourism for Sulu, as Gordon indicates, build the biggest damn prison in the world there and let the locals staff the guard posts, kitchens, etc. Lots of room for the new flood of criminals that will be generated as the Philippines goes “clean and green”, and lots of new jobs. When people get assigned there as inmates, just mark them off the list and forget about them . . .
Joe
Yes and no, Joe.
A Philippine Guantanamo may not be as easy to build in a political environment as unwieldy as the Philippines.
I can almost hear the grandstanding trapos thumping their chests for or against such a proposal to suit their chamelon like ‘principles’ on human rights and racial unity.
Yes, the automated system will not prevent “winged” voters. The biometrics control operates only on the registration system which is not linked to the PCOS balloting machine. The machine has no way of checking the identity of the voter and therefore unauthorized ballots can still be fraudulently marked and read. The only safeguard against “winged” voters is the supposedly indelible ink smeared on the forefinger. The ink mark serves no defense at all if the BEIs themselves breaks this antiquated security system. A completely biometric balloting system, i.e., the use of fingerprints and/or facial snapshot for both registration and voting, , called “Botong Pinoy”, was among the proposals submitted, but COMELEC opted for the older and more traditional OMR, or the mark and scan technology. And talking about vote rigging, there are other loopholes in the system, e.g., human intervention performed in secluded offices of COMELEC would be required in cases of failure of online transmission of results to preferred site or central server. Whenever human factor is invovled in manipulating computer files, the possibility of fraud exist. But the real scare is the failure of elections due to major lapses in the implementation schedule attributable to delays in machine deliveries and questionable software design.
Tumbok mo, Sir.
Anything is possible in Philippine elections. The dead will vote.
The winged voters (manananggal) will vote. The Dwendes will hide
some ballots. The Tikbalans will terrorize voters. We live in an
Enchanted Kingdom. Time to offer Anitos to the Gods. To make the election a success. Do your part!