Waging Peace: Philippines

Monitoring Elections

Elections in the Philippines have long been marked by low public confidence and allegations of fraud and corruption.  In previous years, the canvassing, or aggregation, of election results has taken upward of two months in the postelection period, fostering widespread concern over ballot security and transparent results transmission.  Perhaps most notably, the 2004 presidential elections were marked by the Hello Garci scandal, an alleged vote-buying scheme involving both the election management body and the incumbent president.

Use of Electoral Technologies
The Carter Center began an initiative focused on addressing emergent challenges to election observation in 2006 as part of its Democratic Election Standards project. This initiative includes efforts to develop an observation methodology for electoral technologies, through the conduct of three limited missions focused on the use of technology in a variety of regional and electoral contexts and other methods.

2010 Elections - Limited Observation
A Carter Center field team was joined on election day by additional observers who observed the testing and sealing of the PCOS machines as well as voting and precinct-level results transmission throughout metro Manila, Baguio City, and Bacolod.

Given the study mission's limited focus and small size, The Carter Center did not release public statements about the overall electoral process.  However, the Center published a report (PDF) on the use of automated election technologies in the Philippines.

On election day, observers also pilot tested an SMS-based data collection tool developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology.  This technology allowed observers to complete election day checklists directly into a customized checklist software program that transmits responses via cell phone networks back to a central server. Read more about the Center's work on observing electronic voting technologies.