TECHNOLOGY AND PROCESS

Last Monday, May 11 Y2010, will be etched in Philippine history as the first computerized elections. 

All the anxieties and fears were laid to rest after reports from almost 85%  of all the voting precincts confirmed that the PCOS machines were working. 

While the assistance of the computers was a technological leap into the 21^st century I must say that the election process was almost a disaster. 

The process for a computerized election was not clearly communicated to all the personnel manning the precincts.

The queuing of the people to exercise their right to vote was a very annoying procedure. The average waiting time would be 2 hours. I have personally seen voters who gave up falling in line and went home. I can’t blame them. The terrible heat, cramped corridors, and poor precinct structure was compounded by the threat of a possible stampede. The queues extended into the staircase of most polling precincts and that is a death trap waiting to be sprung. The Board of Election Inspectors(BEI) simply didn’t prepare an orderly queuing process while they knew the average voting time per individual was estimated at ten minutes each. 

The segregation of Senior Citizens was not implemented properly. It was left to the discretion  of the BEI on how they handled the elderly who turned out to vote.   Their simply was no process in place.  Small “fights” broke out while falling in line because of this.  I salute all  those aged 55 years old and up who bravely trooped to the precincts to cast their vote. I sincerely hope I would have their same courage when time has left me grey and withered. 

The clustering of precincts due to the lack of the PCOS machines couldn’t be avoided. However, the officials manning the clustered precincts should have also reallocated the BEI inspectors to adapt to the ratio of precincts vs voters.  The outcome was a delay in the Verification of Voters because the BEI personnel were not augmented in the precincts.  How do they expect to finish on time with 3 BEI personnel when you clustered 2 to 6 percents at the average. 

To the credit of some upstanding voters themselves, they have sought quick representation with the BEI and volunteered to   fix the queue.  From a chaotic start, the lines were fixed by a very simple tool.  Pieces of paper with hand-written numbers were distributed.   You don’t have to queue anymore, you just observe and listen to what number is being served. No rocket-science there.

I hope the government officials in the COMELEC have learned invaluable lessons in process this time around. I would hate to think that they did this on purpose to sabotage the elections. It should never happen, that’s why I keep my beng-beng close, just in case. 

Technology and Process could be summarized in the words of an unknown voter who queued for two hours ….” Mga putang ina ‘nyo, pa kompyu-kompyuter pa kayo eh di nyo naman maayos proseso nyo! ”