Last updated on December 17, 2013

The electoral complaints and protests filed by political parties after the 2010 Philippines elections point to several issues that are important for political contestants in countries with electronic voting and counting systems: the need for specialized technical expertise, effective training of party observers to collect appropriate documentary evidence, and IT capacity in courts making decisions on electoral complaints.

In 2010, political parties in the Philippines observed the country’s first nationwide use of electronic technology for elections. The introduction of e-counting technology was expected to reduce fraud and errors during counting and tabulation (canvassing). Thus, it was hoped that the number of electoral complaints and protests filed by parties and candidates would decrease. However, due to several factors, electoral protests increased in 2010. The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal received a record number of cases (65) in 2010. The COMELEC also received more cases filed by losing candidates in 2010 (98) than in the 2007 elections (73).⁴¹

Some of the protests were related to the electronic technology used in the elections, including complaints about: erroneous counting of votes or misreading of ballots by the optical-scan machines; errors in the initialization of optical-scan machines; errors in transmission and consolidation of results; erroneous rejection of ballots; nonimplementation of security measures; and manipulation of optical-scan machines and/or compact flash cards. Ultimately, many cases were dismissed due to insufficient evidence or on procedural grounds.  

Reflecting upon their experiences with monitoring and filing complaints, the major political parties cited a number of lessons learned. A lack of IT training and tools for observing the new technologies made it difficult for party agents to collect the necessary evidence to support their candidates’ claims. Parties also pointed to the importance of making sure the courts have the IT capacity to effectively rule on technology-related cases. They also noted that the cost of filing complaints has increased, since parties have to hire more specialized legal and IT expertise, significantly adapt party pollwatcher trainings and tools, and educate themselves in more detail about the new technologies.

^{41 Libertas. Issues and Challenges to Dispute Resolution under the PSCOS AES.}