Today Is Election Day

The great test of Philippine democracy is currently underway, and hopefully things will go smoothly. In a country where election violence is not uncommon, the body count as polls opened already stood at 4. Against the backdrop of possible violence, ballot box stuffing, fraud, and other voting irregularities, any election in the Philippines is an exciting event. This one, however, is bound to be a down right thriller. It is the first election that is fully automated.

Having witnessed a few automation projects of a much smaller scale myself, automating an election for 50 million registered voters must be no small feat. Murphy is bound to rear its ugly head from time to time, and due to the sensitive nature of the process being automated, some people will undoubtedly see nefarious scheming behind any problem that arises.

This morning, the website of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) went down due to the sheer number of hits it received. This website is an important part of the election process since voters need it to determine which precinct they are supposed to cast their vote. As a work around measure, emergency hotlines where setup that voters can use instead.

The new PCOS machines also received their fair share of problems. On the eve of election day the Comelec reported preparations for the country’s first fully automated elections were 98 percent complete, but when polls opened at 10am this morning, reports from the supplier showed only a 15% readiness.

Nonetheless, despite the glitches and long queues of which even presidential hopefuls are not spared,  voting does seem to be underway all over the country, with many people having the telling ink stain on their finger.

When the dust settles, let's hope the SWS polls are true that most would vote according to their conscience and are unlikely to be swayed by endorsements or political machinery. Let's also hope the people will trust the outcome of the elections despite the early glitches, and that presidential hopefuls will not not use it to stalemate the political system when they feel the results are not in their favour.