While we could say that the May 2022 National and Local Elections were successful because of the high voter turnout and fast transmission of results, was it a fair and orderly process?
Last July 15, 2022, the Ateneo School of Government, with the PARTICIPATE PH Coalition, organized the “Election Stakeholders Summit: Assessment of the 2022 National and Local Elections”. It is the first in a series of conversations that PARTICIPATE is organizing to evaluate the May 2022 National and Local Elections to build a consensus on the needed political electoral reforms for future Philippine elections.
The Summit was held via Zoom and live streamed on different Facebook pages. It was attended by electoral reform advocates, members of different civil society organizations (CSOs), as well as students and faculty members from different universities.
The speakers were Mr. Eric Alvia of the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), Atty. Rona Ann Caritos of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), and Mr. Sandino Soliman of the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO).
According to Mr. Alvia, NAMFREL participated in preparatory activities with COMELEC and other election stakeholders such as Congress and civil society organizations (CSOs). Public information and voter education efforts were conducted. NAMFREL volunteers were present from the public demonstrations of the vote-counting machines (VCMs) until the final testing and sealing of the VCMs and other election materials. During election day, NAMFREL volunteers were deployed to different voting centers to observe the election process from the start of the day until the canvassing. Expectedly, NAMFREL participated in monitoring the elections.
NAMFREL’s initial assessment is that the May 2022 National and Local elections was a success but it wasn’t a fair and an orderly process. It is now working on a final and more comprehensive report containing detailed information and recommendations.
Atty. Caritos explained LENTE’s assessment on pre-, during, and post-elections. LENTE commended COMELEC for opening the online reactivation for persons with disabilities and the elderly as it made the voter registration process convenient. LENTE hopes that this will be made available to all voters. She noted the lack of internet access in some COMELEC offices. To address disinformation/misinformation during the campaign period, she expected COMELEC to utilize all available platforms for public education. LENTE acknowledged the huge number of voter turnout, the fast transmission of results, and the proactive communications among the stakeholders on election day.
However, there were also the breakdown of VCMs, election offenses, misunderstanding of contingency procedures, and the failure of elections in Lanao Del Sur. Moving forward, LENTE calls on every one to pressure our legislators not to postpone the Barangay and SK Elections any longer, and to pursue electoral reforms and the amendment of the Fair Elections Act and Voter Registration act.
As a reaction to the presentations of Mr. Alvia and Atty. Caritos, Mr. Soliman started by emphasizing the need for the CSOs, social movements, and even political movements to come together and agree on the analysis of the elections and determine what the problems are and how they can be addressed. He proceeded by sharing CODE-NGO’s Development and Reform Agenda (DRA) for 2022-2028 and electoral reform initiatives in the DRA that the President and national government should implement.
On May 27, 2022, the 31st General Assembly of CODE-NGO passed a resolution to include the Hybrid Electoral System among the advocacies of the coalition for the succeeding elections at the national and local levels. Click here to watch the full video of the Election Stakeholders Summit.