The 2007 Presidential Elections

I like the idea from de quiros:

Which brings me to my completely immodest proposal. That is for the elections next year to be held not just as regular senatorial elections but to be turned into a presidential election. No need to call for snap elections if the problem is time and money. We can always turn the regular elections next year into a special one to resolve the problem of a fake president.

I recall that One Voice was saying at one point that the elections next year could be turned into a referendum on Arroyo. Well, we just count the votes right and those elections will be a referendum on Arroyo, whether we like it or not. But more than that, a referendum presupposes a judgment on performance, and the problem is not performance, it is legitimacy. You can never reconcile a “Hello Garci” tape, as vicious an assault on decency, never mind democracy, as you can get, with a legitimate president. It is not enough that the elections next year be turned into a referendum on Arroyo, it is imperative that the elections next year be turned into an occasion to vote for a real president.

I don’t particularly care whether we can actually do this or not. I do particularly care that we -- the elements that made Edsa People Power I and II, the institutions of society that still believe this country has a future, and ordinary citizens -- demand to have this. Our collective voice will be heard, our collective will will decree its realization. Heavenly trumpets have been known to shatter the walls of Jericho, and you can’t get more heavenly than defending freedom.

At the very least, a loud and universal call for special presidential elections next year will let it be known that we are serious about doing something about screwing the voters. No, more than that, about the deceitfulness and lying that are spreading everywhere in this country faster than karaoke. In the end, none of the safeguards against cheating will matter if there is no public vigilance against the threat and no outrage against the commission.

At the very most, well, that is the start of punishing a crime. Arroyo continues to rule this country without having won the elections, we will never have clean elections ever. That is like expecting clean elections during Ferdinand Marcos’ time.

Related item from the Tribune.