Election is the essence of democracy. Without fair elections, democracy will be a farce.

From what has been reported by national media and from what each of us has observed and experienced in the conduct of elections on the local level, there is no way to describe the recent one but a kaleidoscope of hues from fair to farce. Every time it is conducted, election, and that includes the May 2013 election, is an experience full of lessons for the Comelec, the candidates, the voters, the media. And judging from the results of the recent one, some have learned their lessons while others have not.

For the second time, Comelec made use of information technology by automating the counting of votes through the precinct count optical scanner or PICOS. Notwithstanding the lessons of the first automated elections in 2010, the recent one was still full of flaws. Two days before elections the website of Comelec could not be accessed for the list of official candidates. On election Day there were machines that malfunctioned, failed to transmit the results or compact flask disks were corrupted. Lesson on the PICOS: No machine is perfect, make ample contingency.

It was good that in the local level, at least in Bohol, winning candidates were proclaimed only after all the votes have been counted. But in the national level, the National Board of Canvassers composed of the Comelec chairman and commissioners proclaimed six (6) senatorial candidates after only a little over 50% of the votes was officially counted and proclaimed three (3) others the following day even without attaining 100% vote count. To me this was a clear disenfranchisement of the other votes cast that have not yet been officially counted.

With only a little over 9 million votes counted for Senator Candidate Grace Poe, for example, although she had more than 14 million votes already in the unofficial count, she was proclaimed winner with five others. How much vote was credited to her in her certificate of proclamation? What happened to the 5 million more that voted for her? Their votes no longer mattered to the Comelec and that is tantamount to disenfranchisement of the votes cast for her but were not officially counted. What if in the final count, winning senator candidate No. 12 has 10 million votes? Who will be denominated as No.1 since senator candidate Grace Poe has only 9 million votes in her certificate of proclamation?

Why did Comelec not wait until all the votes have been officially counted before proclaiming the winners of the senatorial race? The winning candidates did not seem to be in a hurry. In fact Senator Koko Pimentel feigned illness while Senator Trillanes used the out-of-town reason so as not to be pre-maturely proclaimed. I salute them for their delicadesa. Lesson to the Comelec: Just stick to the law.

Now let’s see what happened in the election campaign. Election campaigning in the local level never got off the ground. It was still the same mud-slinging and character-assassination type as if that were the only way to win an election. Issues were used to stab and kill the political adversary rather than to show his or her inability to address the issue or solve the problem. Black propaganda was circulated like a free commodity. Our candidates have remained immature, to say the least.

We know that inangayan – the euphemism for vote buying - is already an election campaign culture in Bohol and many other provinces of the country. This time, candidates have upped the ante for the coming elections to effectively deprive the poor from venturing into partisan public service. Long before the campaign period some candidates already distributed hefty amounts to attendees of their sorties. This raised the expectations of the voters that during the campaign period and immediately before Election Day money would flow like storm waters. When money from these candidates did not come, voters just forgot them at the voting precincts. There were candidates, too, who did not say they had lots of money or were planning to buy votes but when the time came, it was as if they had all kinds of account in every bank or sponsors and donors from every mall. In fact in Tagbilaran City, the story circulating the day after election was that it was a battle among malls. Lesson to the candidates: don’t flaunt your money unless you intend to deliver.

Now let’s discuss about the local media. The role of media whether on the national, regional or local level is always to be fair, factual, neutral and objective in reporting what is happening. I am sad to say that some of the local media outlet employees and practitioners in Bohol have not been neutral during the last election campaign. Broadcast media employees and practitioners, for example, became partisan by taking the sides of contending candidates to a point where some of them became official propagandists and apologists. Whether it was for the money or for their own beliefs, it did not improve media professionalism. Lesson to the media: Don’t take sides unless you are ready to lose credibility.

Lastly, let’s discuss about the voters. It used to be that sample ballots clipped to a crispy P20-bill would translate to a vote for whoever is the candidate’s name on that sample ballot. This time voters have become wiser. They won’t assure candidates of their votes unless they get hold of mailing envelopes with thousand peso bills inside them. I heard a different story in Jagna town. Voters who were members of a cause-oriented movement refused or returned their inangayan and did not vote for that candidate who gave out money. Lesson to the voters: If you sell your votes, don’t expect candidates to serve you if and when they win. You deserve the leaders you vote into power.

NOTES. After all that has been said and done, congratulations to the winners. Make sure you deserve the office that the voters entrusted you with. To the losers, don’t despair there is always a next time after three years.