The Role of the COMELEC
In our pre-election report released last April 13, we raised several areas of concern that the COMELEC, as a constitutionally mandated body, must address if there were to be credible elections. We believe these demands were doable and would go a long way in ensuring that the 2007 elections would not go the way of the Garci-tainted 2004 polls.
The issues Kontra Daya wanted COMELEC to address were:
1. the continued presence and promotions of election officials linked to the Garci scandal
2. the security of accountable election documents
3. implementation of crucial provisions of RA 9369
4. problems in the party list elections
5. the role of the military in the elections
With about a month left before the elections, we issued this final challenge to the COMELEC:
* thorough investigation and reassignment to less critical positions of COMELEC regional directors and election officers implicated in the electoral fraud of 2004;
* suspension and thorough audit of the operations of private printers inside the National Printing Office (NPO) with the immediate and full public disclosure of the contracts or lease agreements entered into by NPO with these private printers;
* implementation of R.A. 9369, particularly Section 39 (projection of canvassing);
* make public the list of nominees of party-list groups, revoke the accreditation of party-lists proven to be connected to the incumbent administration and/or government agencies, and put a stop to the harassment of legitimate party-lists and their nominees.
* order the withdrawal of AFP troops from urban areas, charge officers and enlisted personnel involved in electioneering, and immediately reassign military commanders in areas where extrajudicial killings take place;
The COMELEC failed to address all these demands satisfactorily. The conditions for wholesale fraud persist.
COMELEC Officials from the Garci Scandal
The COMELEC has resisted citizens demands for the investigation, or reassignment to less sensitive positions, of the election officials implicated in the Garci tapes. In fact, election official Rey Sumalipao, who had been implicated in the Garci tapes, was promoted to head COMELEC operations for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), an area where massive fraud is said to be already taking place.
2007 Elections
