QUEZON City, Philippines (February 8) – The Commission of Elections (COMELEC) is confirmed to give the public a privilege to view the election results via their website. According to COMELEC Chairman Andres Bautista, this will be done for the sake of transparency and accessibility, allowing people to see blow-by-blow counts from 90,000 precincts, every single counting machine – essentially making each and single one of us an enumerator.
This was already done in 2010 and 2013, but not all election returns were posted due to incomplete data. If done correctly, those who have internet access— well, almost everyone—will have the ability to tally the complete results, aside from the election inspectors.
What will make this move amazing is there will be less possibility of dagdag-bawas and cheating, since the aimed coverage of the project is specific and vivid, though wide. Election inspectors and TV stations can have the boosted masses as partners when it comes to monitoring and calculations, improved by citizen journalism and broadcasting format.
The common problem here is the vulnerability of the numbers from online terrorists and glitches. Leaked wrong data online takes a lot of time to recover. In order to avoid this, tight online security will take both roles of emergency and preventive measure. It wouldn’t hurt to hire online and IT experts to protect the data from hackers hired by you-know-who’s.
May 9 is primarily a day of our responsibility to make one of our life’s many ultimate choices. But, with the publicized results, this day can now also be a subject of popcorns and bigger range of pustahan. Whatever the reason, this right of the public will gain its deserved innovation, and will be able to keep up with our fast-paced times. Good job awaiting to be done, COMELEC!
(written by Rex Felix Salvador, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Lovely Ann Cruz)
