MikeLigalig.com

By Engr Jes Tirol, Bohol Chronicle

SCANNING THE HORIZON FOR SURPRISES ON MAY 10, 2010 ELECTION DAY
    
Proem

During the April 25, 2010 induction of officers of LUDABI, AWRAFI, and BLAC held at JJ's Seafood Village, our inducting officer and guest speaker was Atty. Eliseo Labaria, the Provincial COMELEC of Bohol.

As I listened to Atty. Labaria, I could imagine many surprises that will arise during Election Day.

PCOS Machine

The Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) machines to be used in Bohol have already arrived and are being stored.

The PCOS machine is different in design compared to the machines used during the elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). In ARMM the machines were "touch screen" type and interact with the voters similar to a "Teller Machine" in a bank.

The PCOS machine has very low tolerance for variations like temperature, voltage, gap between ballot and machine slit, misalignment, etc. An excess from these tolerance can already cause the machine to malfunction. The COMELEC has already announced that they expect 30% of these machines to malfunction.

Unanswered Question

I asked Atty. Labaria what will happen if the oval is punched through and becomes a hole. Atty. Labaria was surprised because of all the expediencies they imagined they never thought of the oval for shading to become a hole. He hazard a guess that it will not be read.

I responded that if it will not be read by the PCOS, then there is a solution to an over-vote. Just ask the voter which candidate he will cancel and the COMELEC Officials will punch the oval to become a hole. At present, if you will over-vote, say for senators, all the 12 valid votes will be eliminated or not counted. Atty. Labaria took note of my suggestion and will bring the matter to National COMELEC.

NOY-NOY and BINAY

The Pulse Asia Poll Survey published a recent result that for the Vice Presidential race, Mayor Jejomar Binay has already surged to second place and threatening to overtake Senator Mar Roxas.

The March 25-29, 2010 poll survey conducted by the University of Bohol Research Center indicated that Mayor Binay is already ahead in Tagbilaran City.

Our January 27, 2010 survey for Tagbilaran City had AQUINO = 58.78% and ROXAS = 63.34% with BINAY = 14.86%.

Our March 29 survey had a result for Tagbilaran City as AQUINO = 40.1% and BINAY = 34.7% with ROXAX = 29.3%. In other words, Tagbilaran City was ahead in making the shift from ROXAS to BINAY.

There was not much shifting in the other candidates. At present we are still conducting a survey for the whole province of Bohol. We expect to finish it by May 5.

Money Is Still A Factor

Our surveys indicate that Inangayan (money distributed and viewed as a per diem) is still a big factor in the coming election.

In this regard we can expect many surprises. The money from national candidates is already here in Bohol. However, it will not be distributed through party lines but by independent organizations. The local candidates could not touch this money. The national candidates have already gotten wise to the situation that local candidates will forget the national candidate that supplied the funding.

In this situation, we can expect that local alliances will shift from political party to other political parties. In other words, in the Provincial and Municipal levels, we can expect the unexpected. This is enhanced by the fact that only very few candidates can afford to print the "long ballot".

In all probability you can find only individual fliers of candidates and maybe a ballot with names coming from a mixture of parties.

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