The Paths to Peace

Are we ready for an automated elections? 

The answer to this question will be known tomorrow, when the people of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM get out of their houses to take part in this historic elections - the first automated elections in our country. 

Maguindanao will use a technology which is called direct recording electronic election system or DRE. This technology will be the fastest in all of ARMM since the other areas will use the optical mark reader or OMR.

The difference between the two systems is that the DRE will have a voting pad where the names, faces and the positions being sought by a candidate. All a voter should do is press the name to vote for a certain candidate, much like getting a can of soda in a vendo machine. The COMELEC says a voter should be able to do it in less than 3 minutes. 

The OMR which will be used in areas like Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Shariff Kabunsuan, still uses the ballot but unlike in previous elections where a voter should write, legibly, a candidates name, he or she now only has to shade a an oval which corresponds to a candidate's name. After voting comes a face of the "old" elections, the ballots from precints will have to be transported by the Board of Election Inspectors from the precints to Cotabato City, specifically at the Cotabato City Polytechnic College where the municipal and provincial counting and canvassing centers are located. 

There will be counting machines which will tally the votes from the "electronic ballot" which will be easier and relatively faster than what we're accustomed to when teachers would painstakingly record in "taras" the number of votes on the blackboard. 

All the election returns will be consolidated in a municipal canvass and then in a provincial canvass. The results of which will be transmitted online to the regional canvassing area which is in COMELEC-Manila. 

The results will be known almost simultaneously in ARMM areas and Manila. 

Tomorrow is a historic day for all of us and it's taking place amidst the tension between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government over the botched signing of the memorandum of agreement that would have paved the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).

If one takes a long hard look at these two events happening in Mindanao -- one can see a similarity: both the elections and the clamor for a BJE have one objective: representation; the right to be represented by a leader voted by the people in the case of the elections and the right to be represented as a people, unique with tradition, culture and history in the case of the BJE. 

These are two different but nonetheless intertwined paths to peace. 

We cannot take one at the expense of the other.