Electoral Reforms Needed First

Senator Richard Gordon said Saturday that the nation should focus on electoral reforms before discussing potential contenders for the presidency in 2010.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms, said that the country should concentrate on electoral reforms to avoid electoral fraud in the upcoming August 8 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and eventually in the presidential elections in May 2010.

“If the country has to change, [the electoral system] has to be reformed. This will be a good test if Filipinos have already acquired the moral backbone. If not, we will be like Haiti or Kenya or Pakistan, if we ever allow a convicted highest official to govern again,” he said.

He added that these reforms should start with President Gloria Arroyo showing transparency in the selection of the next chairman and commissioners of the Comelec.

“If there is transparency, people will have less doubt about the appointees and in the Comelec,” added Gordon, who has been pushing for automated elections to eliminate fraud since 2000.

Three vacancies in the Comelec are to be filled up in February with the resignation of Chairman Benjamin Abalos, and the retirement of Commissioners Resureccion Borra and Florentino Tuason on February 2.

Senators: electoral reforms before politicking

By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter

The Manila Times
Sunday, January 06, 2008
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/jan/06/yehey/metro/20080106met1.html