Arroyo tries another tack to stay longer

by Ellen Tordesillas

I’m glad that Comelec Chairman Jose Melo accepts the possibility that automated elections may not take place in many parts of the country on election day.

Last Wednesday, a week after the Supreme Court upheld Comelec’s claim that they are fully capable of a nationwide automated elections despite questions raised by the Concerned Citizens Movement on the legality their having skipped the required testing of the contracted system, Melo said, “Aside from preparations for poll automation, Comelec is also preparing for manual elections sa mga liblib na lugar (in remote areas), provinces with no electricity, and would have issues in electronic transmission. We are ready for manual polls in at least 30 percent or 50 percent of the country as a last contingency measure in case the contingency plans for automation are difficult to implement.”

I don’t know if Melo’s admission of lack of electricity in many areas of the country has something to do with the warning of Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes of a power shortage next year, during election period.

Although they lost the battle in the High Court, CCM’s Harry Roque felt vindicated by Melo’s statement. “That is exactly what I said during the oral arguments. I argued that we can possibly automate only up to 70 per cent without experiencing a grand failure of elections.”

Roque said they have argued for partial automation which Melo now admits is a distinct possibility.

Roque now asks: if only 70 per cent of the May 2010 elections is automated, will that be taken into account in the payment of P7.2 billion to Smartmatic/Total Information System which won the contract to conduct the full, nationwide automated elections?

“If partial automation will be implemented, then the payment to Smartmatic should be reduced accordingly. The COMELEC should fix the amount and the terms of refund now, otherwise it will become very difficult to claim the refund if they do it after the election,” Roque said adding that
Smartmatic-TIM should be returning between P2.22 Billion and P3.7 Billiion.

Ferdinand Rafanan, head of the Comelec’s legal department, discounts that possibility but if it happens, he said, there would be “penalty under the service level” section of the agreement.

Despite the Supreme Court’s affirmation of faith in the Comelec, the fear of failure of elections lingers. I believe Comelec when it says that it is impossible for the 80,000 machines to break down on election day. But it doesn’t have to be all the 80,000 machines malfunctioning to create disorder and all sorts of protests.

Rafanan said it is Comelec that will declare failure of elections and the basis are either of the three: no election took place; election was suspended; and election was completed but no proclamation was done because there was no winner.

Rafanan said failure of election could be caused by terrorism, fraud, violence, force majeure or other or similar incidents.

The fear of failure of election, which comes from the Hello Garci scandal in the 2004 election, is compounded by the possible leadership vacuum that would be created in case no winner is declared by June 30, 2010, the last day of Arroyo in Malacañang.

The order of succession provided by Constitution in case of vacancy in the presidency is vice-president, senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives. All those three positions are vacant by June 30,2010 if there would be failure of elections and no winner is declared.

The Senate could not elect a new senate president due to lack of quorum because there would only be 12 members of the Senate, one of them, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, is even in detention and is not allowed to vote.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has warned that the military and the police might end up taking temporary control of the country if there would be a total failure of elections in 2010 resulting in a power vacuum because at that point, “the only authority that you have are those with guns because they are the most organized people in the bureaucracy.”

That is why, I’m wary with the recommendation of Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes for Congress to give Arroyo emergency powers for power shortages which he foresees around election period in 2010.

Gloria Arroyo has not given up. After failing to change the Constitution that would have legitimized her plan to continue holding on to power beyond June 2010, she is now asking, through the person who installed her to the presidency without election in 2001, to be granted absolute power. The gall!