The Philippines’ recent midterm elections were marked by serious shortcomings, including rampant vote-buying, red-tagging, and sporadic political violence, according to election monitoring groups.
The May 12 midterm elections saw tens of millions of voters cast ballots for more than 18,000 political positions. Up for grabs were half of the seats in the 24-seat Senate, 317 seats in the House of Representatives, 82 governorships and vice-governorships, and thousands more executive and legislative positions at lower levels of government.
In a preliminary statement released yesterday, the EU Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) said that the elections were preceded by “a vibrant and highly visible campaign, and a pluralistic media coverage, both of which enhanced voter’s ability to make an informed choice.” It also praised the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for its “timely preparation” of polling stations and ballots, and the experience and competence of its staff.
But the EU EOM pointed to reported “credible indications” and direct observations of vote-buying involving cash and goods, including instances of “bidding wars” for votes among local candidates.
“The elections took place against the backdrop of a continued dominance of a few political families in the lists of candidates, detracting from overall competitiveness,” Marta Temido said while presenting the preliminary statement in Manila yesterday.
“Violent incidents marred the election process in some parts of the country, including through at least 30 killings of candidates and election officials,” she added.
The EU mission deployed 226 observers from 25 EU member states, making it one of the most comprehensive foreign observation efforts in the country.
Despite being illegal under Philippine election laws, vote-buying has long stained Philippine elections. Last week, Comelec reported that it had received more than 400 complaints of vote buying and abuse of state resources, some involving the partisan distribution of welfare payments, a practice known as ayuda.
The EU said that its observation team witnessed instances of vote buying or ayuda in Bohol, Davao Oriental, La Union, Palawan, Quezon, Siquijor, Zamboanga City, and Zamboanga del Sur provinces. In the preliminary report, it also noted that complaints about ayuda were rife on social media in the run-up to May 12.
Such “inducements” have long been a problem, especially at the lower levels of government, where powerful political families use their wealth to crowd out possible challengers. The EU EOM also connected this to the fact that many local positions were uncontested. “Voter engagement was strong nationwide but belied the fact that one in five district races were non-competitive, typically featuring only the incumbent,” its report stated.
Violence is likewise a common feature of Philippine elections, especially in regions of the country with a history of armed insurgency. Citing media reports, the EOM reported that at least 30 people, “including several candidates and election officials,” were killed during the three-month campaign. On election day, it said that “at least 10 fatalities” were recorded, including in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a region with a long history of Muslim separatism where a fragile peace pertains.
“While violence was more prevalent in local rather than national elections,” the report said, “it often aimed to intimidate stakeholders, thus influencing the overall atmosphere.”
The EU EOM’s preliminary findings were largely mirrored by the International Observer Mission (IOM), “a delegation of human rights advocates from across the globe,” which released its initial findings on Tuesday.
The IOM observed “an intensification of election-related violence and rights violations” in the run-up to election day. It said that killings and shootings were reported in the provinces of Abra, Negros Occidental, Davao del Norte, Davao Occidental, and Zamboanga del Sur, as well as in the BARMM, all the provinces of which saw “varying levels of violence.”
These violence incidents “ranged from fist fights and riots between supporters of rival candidates to gunfights and shootings resulting in killings,” the IOM said. It also includes numerous cases of “red-tagging,” a practice whereby progressive or left-wing candidates are accused of involvement with communist insurgent groups.
The IOM said that Vote Report PH, one of its partner organizations, recorded 1,445 incidents of red-tagging throughout the campaign period, in regions including Cordillera, Southern Tagalog, Southern Luzon, Negros, and Mindanao. “The attacks intensified on election day, with red-tagging flyers and posters targeting progressive candidates and partylists still being circulated,” it stated. The EU mission also observed numerous cases of red-tagging in Cebu and Davao cities, Benguet, La Union and Pangasinan provinces, and the National Capital Region. It also said that red-tagging was a “widespread” problem online.
The IOM also alleged more serious problems with the electoral process. It alleged that the elections were marred by “severe voter disenfranchisement due to malfunctioning automated counting machines (ACMs), reports of ballots being wrongly read as overvotes, effectively nullifying valid votes, and a troubling, unexplained software update on the machines.”
Lee Rhiannon, a former Australian Senator from the Greens party who serves as the IOM’s commissioner, said that “the convergence of political violence, widespread disenfranchisement, harassment, and unexplained technical irregularities point to systemic vulnerabilities that risk undermining public trust in the electoral process.”
