Three years between now and the 2010 elections should give the Commission on Elections sufficient time to institute needed electoral reforms, notably the automation of the election process, according to Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye.

But for the "miracle" of automated elections to happen, "we need to act as one nation committed to elevating its electoral system to a state-of-the-art democratic exercise," Bunye said in his weekly column, View from the Palace, which comes out tomorrow (Monday, May 21).

The administration, he said, is "certainly up to the challenge of electoral reforms. Let us hope that such reforms will form part of a nationbuilding agenda that all sectors and political parties can support, as a vehicle towards constructive political engagement and increased people’s participation in national governance."

He pointed out that in her Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan, which bears the acronym BEAT THE ODDS, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stressed that electoral reforms, particularly automated elections, are essential to the country’s political stability.

Bunye said the usual problems that come with elections such as the difficulty in finding one’s precinct, stressed out teachers, electoral fraud and "a predictable aftermath of a slow count" can be solved, once and for all, by automating the country’s electoral system.

He added, however, that the processes involved in automation – from legislation to budgetary support and a trouble-free, fully transparent and acceptable bidding process – must be in place.

The Palace official said that the three years it took the Comelec – from the time it bought computer equipment to modernize the 2004 elections to the time Congress passed into law the automation of elections this year – was sufficient time to facilitate the implementation of an automated polling system.

Yet today, "we continue to rely on the same antiquated system of voting, canvassing, and tabulation that our forebears used several decades ago," he added.

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