Elex watchdogs seek transparency, urge COMELEC to adopt hybrid elections

Graphics: Kent Bicol

Kontra Daya and other concerned groups gathered at the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Main Office at the Palacio del Gobernador on March 27 to urge the adoption of hybrid election system and to condemn issues surrounding the upcoming 2025 midterm elections.

The proposed hybrid election system involves manual counting of votes at the precinct level before the electronic transmission of the results using devices such as laptops and smartphones through file transfer protocol (FTP). This will eliminate the need for Automated Counting Machines (ACM), which will become more cost-effective and transparent in terms of vote counting.

Additionally, a hybrid election revives the manual voting process, where ballots feature blank spaces allocated for voters to write a candidate’s name directly to reduce the risk of discarded ballots, which could otherwise lead to financial losses.

Kontra Daya Convenor Professor Danilo Arao also emphasized the campaign on public access and review of Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) at the precinct level, source code, and the whole infrastructure of the automated election system, among others.

“Ang panawagan po natin dito ay transparency at accountability, kahit sabihin natin na automated ang sistema sa kasalukuyan, dapat pa ring siguraduhin na ang pilosopiya ng COMELEC [ay] hindi ‘yong magtiwala lang tayo sa makina,” Arao said.

Arao urges the public to report election-related violations, including vote buying, misinformation, the misuse and abuse of government resources, and other offenses.

According to Ian Aragoza of Computer Professionals' Union (CPU), an alliance for fair elections, Vote Report PH's web-based election advocacy initiative has received about a hundred cases of on-ground election violations, excluding undocumented ones, in just two months during the campaign period of senatorial candidates and party-list groups.

“Kasama na ang ilang kaso ng vote buying, ang paggamit ng ayuda ng gobyerno para sa campaigning, ang ilegal na pangangampanya, at higit sa kalahati ng reports na na-receive namin ay napakaraming kaso ng red-tagging,” Aragoza said.

In an earlier speech, Arao mentioned that the reported case data from Kontra Daya and Vote Report PH indicate that 60% of the cases are primarily related to red-tagging.

Aragoza added that there are huge networks of social media accounts that spread fake news to their hundred thousand followers, using deep fakes or artificial intelligence-generated images to attack other candidates and organizations.

With less than two months until the May 2025 elections, Jona Yang of CPU believes there is still ample time to implement a hybrid election system, provided there is political will from the COMELEC.

“Kung gusto, gagawan po at gagawan ng paraan ng COMELEC, pero kung ayaw niya, maglalabas siya ng sandamakmak na dahilan… Hindi po dapat sukatan ng matagumpay na eleksyon ang mabilis na pagbibilang ng boto, susukatin natin ang tagumpay ng eleksyon kung ito ay malinis, kung ito ay patas, [at] transparent,” Yang said.

Arao also affirms that the COMELEC will not take the initiative to shift to a hybrid election, but believes that public pressure is necessary to make it possible.

Article: John Lloyd Estrella Pablico