The Summer Experience 3: When Dorian Lord Became Mayor (An Election That We Want to See)

Mayo a Diyes Dos Mil Dos=May 10, 2010=Ika-Sampu ng Mayo Taong Dalawampu-Sampu

In less than 12 hours, me and some 50-million strong eligible Filipino voters from all walks of life will take part in the first ever fully-automated elections in the Philippines, choosing the leaders who will either make or break the nation's future. Indeed this is history in the making and I am honored as a first-time voter that I will be able to finally exercise my right of suffrage and get to see first-hand how the new system of voting will fare for the first time.

Sure, in the weeks leading to the May 10 national elections there have bee technical problems besetting the recently-held test runs of the Precinct Count Optical System (PCOS) machines with sprouting issues of "automated cheating", fears of possible hacking, and the like. Lemme say that never is there a country this crazy with elections such as ours.

Think of the whole situation like a soap opera, where everything is superficial. From lead characters with over-the-top personalities and says the cheesiest and corniest speeches to the recurring ones who never seem to possess two-way functioning brains and let their emotions take the best of them to the production and PR crew that makes sure that this soap opera is hitting big in the ratings.

I mean, is an elective position something to die for? Vote-buying, ghost voters, tirades, mudslinging, and varying forms of election-related violence, all of these for the sake of winning?

All these mess reminds me of Dorian Lord, a character from an American TV show called "One Life to Live". She's the type of person that people love to hate because of her self-centeredness, always maintaining a clean image despite having a very despicable personality. One good trait from Dorian is that she puts her family first, protecting them from harm at all cost.

There is this one storyline that she was a part of recently where she decided to run for mayor against Viki. She tries her hardest to win sympathy votes by pretending to be that she's a "lesbian" to woo in LGBT voters. She even went as far as "marrying" her campaign manager who is actually a lesbian herself. Although this campaign didn't result of her winning the vote, she became mayor when her closest rival and winner of the mayoral race, Viki, dropped out after her son-in-law was shot to death.

One thing I noticed is that as despicable and hated that Dorian can be to many, she knows her boundaries as a candidate. Never was there an instance of her throwing mud to the other candidates but merely presented to voters her platform as well as her charm to convince people that she deserves to be a mayor. Even on election day itself, she didn't do anything to have the electoral process fall into her favor but merely let the people decide on who they want to be as their leader. Even the way they vote was as simple as pulling down a lever that corresponds to their candidate of choice.

I could assume that the mayor election itself was not even fully automated and by the end of election day, the final tally of the results are made known right away. Dorian, despite having good vibes of becoming mayor initially conceded after learning she lost before she knew she won by default. She never called for a recount (because the votes were counted over several times) nor yelled to the local electoral commission that she felt she was cheated nor threatened to resort with a people powered revolution to protest the results. That's possibly the most mature thing a politician can do to maintain his dignity, pride and civility, something that I wish all the politicos in this country possess so that we could all move on with our lives and become a developed country right away.

We elect leaders to serve US and not to serve themselves.

As a voter voting for the first time, as a member of a generation who will be the first to experience a modernized electoral system, we hope that with one vote, there will be one decision and therefore one change that we want to see, the change that we want to be.

Ako boboto sa unang pagkakataon, kayo?