On May 9 the Philippines automated its third national election with great result. Leveraging technology, basically all candidates vying for local offices were proclaimed between Election Night and the next day.
The staggering speed of past three automated elections stands in stark contrast against the slowness of the process under the manual system where it it took as long as three months before the winning president and vice president were officially declared.
Technology provider Smartmatic, which supplied the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) with the automated elections system, cited the factors of success for this year’s elections.
“The success of the May 9 elections doesn’t stop at the speedy electronic transmission and the high voter turnout, among other positive outcome. These accomplishments also led to the faster canvassing of votes for national positions, which were performed and finished within days,” according to the Smartmatic general manager Elie Moreno.
All twelve winning senators were proclaimed on May 19, which also was a marked improvement over previous proclamations where it took several batches to proclaim the winners.
The speed and orderliness of the elections also merited the attention of Senator Franklin Drilon who lauded the Commission on Elections for “a job well done” and for strengthening democracy in the country by ensuring credible elections.
Commenting on the relative speed of the proclamation vis a vis those in the past elections, Drilon said “Today’s proclamation shows not only the stability and maturity of the political system but also the clear and peaceful transfer of power from President Aquino to President-elect Duterte”.
The May 9 elections saw the largest turnout since 1986 with 81% of the registered voters or over 44 million Filipinos casting their votes.
With 84% of all results already transmitted a few hours after the polls closed, winners on the local levels were declared on election night or the following day, while the public already had a clear idea who the winning candidates were for the national posts within 24 hours after the polls had closed.
Observers have noted the immediate effects of the speedy and accurate results of the polls, namely the easing of electoral tensions, the steep decline of election-related violence, all of which led to the robust trading in the Philippine Stock Exchange and the impressive rally of the Philippine currency.
