Get rid of COMELEC crooks, Nene Pimentel dares Melo

Good luck with that. If he won't even acknowledge that the Garci-led operation to rig the elections is real, like some of the COMELEC people we know, and that Garci couldn't do this all by himself without the help of other officials within the COMELEC, then Nene is just whisling in the dark.

If Melo decides to sack a few COMELEC officials for show, it'll probably be for the botched MEGA Pacific automated deal.

But no COMELEC official will be punished or be made to tell the truth on the Garci operations in 2004.

MORE: They shouldn't only remove crooked COMELEC officials, but PARTISAN ones too. Remember, these are the same COMELEC that allowed Mike Arroyo's nuisance candidate to fight for Cayetano's votes.

Here's what i thought of the 75 yr old Melo's appointment.

Money Quote from the Daily Tribune:

There have been changes in the Comelec leadership in the past seven years of Gloria’s reign. The same praises were given to these then new appointees, but were there any changes by way of cleaning up the poll fraud operations that mark every election year, not to mention a genuine cleaning up of the voters’ list?

The usual civil society groups hailed the appointment of Benipayo as Comelec chairman, just as they did in the appointments of Justice Felix Brawner, Rene Sarmiento and Nicodemo Ferrer. Did anything change? There certainly was cheating even with them there.

The year 2004 was certainly marked by electoral fraud, but the then Comelec didn’t put its foot down, and even aided in creating the impression that Gloria had won even before the National Board of Canvass started its canvassing.

And did the Comelec commissioners clean up the voters’ list, or even ensured that the voters would not be disenfranchised by scrambling the voters’ list in opposition bailiwicks?

Of course, it can always be argued that at the head of the Comelec was Benjamin Abalos Sr., but whatever else can be said about the disgraced Abalos, the fact remains that a chairman merely has one vote and can certainly be overruled that which the chairman of the commission presses, by way of a ruling. There never was any move to do that, given the concurrence in many a resolution by the other commissioners.

Even the 2007 senatorial elections were marred with electoral fraud, and again, the commissioners did nothing to stave off the cheating. They had, in fact, sanctioned the cheating, which was as clear as day.

So did they constitute changes in the poll body?

Read the whole thing. There's more background info on Melo. And Yeah, there was cheating even after Garci, and little was done about it, other than a few slaps on the wrists.

Related:
- COMELEC declares Musa Dimasidsing a failure
- Mama Mary vs Musa
- How COMELEC tried to screw Alan Cayetano.
- COMELEC tries to sneak past a bloated voters list
- Garcillano the Master Operator