Voter's ed for labor ramps up nationwide
Only 60 days before the first-ever automated elections in the Philippines, an overwhelming majority of voters are not yet adequately informed on the new voting system.
To support the need for massive information dissemination among workers and their communities, the
Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, Inc. (EILER), a labor-based NGO, through its project “Workers' Electoral Watch” or WE Watch, has released various informational materials in various popular forms such as a four-minute video, poster, infocards, and comics, that will be distributed among unions, organizations and worker-communities. Target cities include Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Baguio, Subic, Cebu, Metro Davao, Bacolod, and Iloilo.
“The materials contain simplified steps for the new voting process using popular forms that will encourage voters to learn and not to alienate voters who are not computer-users,” says Joselito Natividad, EILER Executive Director and lead convenor of WE-Watch.
“Under the automated system, voters cannot afford to make a single mistake while filling-up their ballots. The Precint Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine may not read or invalidate their votes if voters are not aware of the basic information on how to cast their votes. This will lead to disenfranchisement due to insufficient information relayed to them,” added Natividad.
WE-Watch's video is an animated clip featuring the step-by-step process in casting one's votes under the Automated Election System (AES), the gadgets to be used in the polling sites, and a preview on how votes are to be counted under the AES. Viewers are also introduced to a text hotline to which they may report any incident of fraud during the election season. The other materials, the posters, infocards and comics, contain the same information and an added points on how citizens should protect their votes against electoral fraud under AES.
The materials were produced by EILER with funding from the European Union (€ 60,000 or approximately P3.9M) under its European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) program. WE Watch is also a network of unions, workers, and organizations that provides a venue for the active participation of workers in 2010 elections through voters education campaign, electoral monitoring against fraud, and building policy-recommendations on the use of AES. More than a week after WE-Watch was publicly launched, numerous voters' education sessions have been conducted among workers and their communities.
Natividad said interested parties may copy and release as many of the material as they want. “EILER, in fact, encourages everyone to reproduce and distribute the video to a wider audience. Requests for hard copies of these materials may be relayed to EILER through their website, while soft copies are available for download from the WE-Watch website at www.we-watch.net.”
-end 3/10/2010
