AS SEEN ON TV
Vote undecided for President
MANILA — If Undecided was running for president, he would give the top three presidential contenders a tough fight.
Since the mudslinging in the campaign turned for the worse in recent weeks the number of undecided voters has risen. Aside from those in doubt, many of those who seem decided are also in denial. There’s a thin cloud of doubt in their minds because with this crop of candidates, they have no firm loyalties. Many voters are settling for the lesser evil and non-passionate votes are indeed easier to sway.
For some who once determinedly rooted for Villar, that indelible, Photoshopped mole on his upper lip is getting disturbing—- as disturbing perhaps, as Noynoy’s fake psychological report. The fallout in the Lakas CMD quarters is also putting Gibo’s bankability at stake (to some voters who believe party machinery is life), while Erap, Gordon, Brother Eddie, JC Delos Reyes and Nick Perlas have been dealing with their own PR nightmares.
And then there are surveys that sometimes contribute to the kind of decisions voters make. The animal in us tells us to find strength in numbers and maybe that’s why there are voters who merely pick someone because he is winning (or leading in the race), making elections merely tactical, more than a noble and patriotic act for change that it’s supposed to be.
There are also voters who will make up their minds on the final moment when man and ballot meet. Even in more politically mature countries like the U.S., where in general, party loyalty should have crystallized a voter’s choice. Many campaigns there have struggled over the phenomenon where voters say they favor a certain candidate when days or minutes before voting, he changes his mind and votes for another.
That why when a 7-statistical-point difference was once considered a lead, these days a 12-point lead is as uncomfortable as a pebble stuck in one’s shoe. Swing votes, last-minute voter indecisions and political machinery can make those 12 points insignificant and turn the race into statistical tie defying established mathematical principles where possibilities and improbabilities are two different things.
As of March 2010, 1 of every 10 voters cannot make up his mind, according to Pulse Asia. The number of doubtful voters in April has risen to over 10% of the total number of voters. Mainly, the squid tactics and gutter propaganda never before seen in Philippine politics became a major turn off for many voters.
For one the campaign has gone virtual and viral. Social Networking Sites have been the battle ground for both construction and demolition jobs. It is through the internet where some of the most damaging news for candidates had broken. The internet has powerfully pushed political content to print and broadcast where fresh news leads used to depend on the reporters’ infallible and resourceful sniffing. Today, citizen journalists transmit pictures and information picked up from the ground and push these online or on their phones especially controversial (albeit unverified) content. Where media fears to thread, bloggers wallow.
Of course nothing could be most damaging than kisses of death so effectively employed by spin doctors to arrest the competitors’ popularity surges. Demolition endorsements have employed jinxes from the highest position in the land to the hour’s most notorious wholesale killer, stamping their notoriety on a poor and helpless presidential candidate whose only fault is leading in the surveys.
News media also accounts for a significant number of public relations spin (or unspin). The campaign trail has been a rich source of sound bites and quotables. With media present in the campaign a candidate must equally put forward his good side and keep his temper in check and dirty laundry under lock and key or closet skeletons make evening news.
On ground, the traditional election posters and streamers are a boon and bane for candidates who are now being judged not only for their perfect close up, Photoshopped smiles, but for their green-ness and intrinsic respect for mother earth. Environmentalists have since campaigned against those who promote their candidacy at the expense of trees.
Besides, life is hard(er). Mounting streamers and posters that cost quite a fortune is a form of wealth flaunting some voters frown upon. No to posters, no to streamers. Not when the cost of one campaign tarp can already feed a famished family in the very slums where these are mounted.
It’s amazing how obsessive voters have become as they look beyond mere qualifications when choosing their bets. Where track record, machinery and contrived congeniality used to be the bases for selecting candidates, the new electorate now looks at a candidate’s issues, advocacies, crusades, motto, lifestyle, and even political correctness in sticky points such as condom use, global warming, or affinity to gays and lesbians.
Voters also want a glimpse of their candidates’ personal lives, their loves and maybe their vanities. The national quest for a soft side is such, in a country yearning to be run and ruled by real people. One national daily even runs a get-to-know-your-candidate section everyday where a politician discusses his visions, platform, mettle, as much as he explicitly makes public his undergarment preferences, favorite body part or how alive (or dead) his sex life has been since campaign began.
Of course there’s the great machine turnoff. With the discomfort over abrupt automated elections (we are the only country in the world going from manual to full automation without a comfortable back up) what are the chances that more people will just stay home on May 10?
And the clustered precinct system which bloats precinct population from 200 to 800 or maybe a thousand voters? By nature, Filipinos do not like long lines. And definitely not on El Nino season.
Such are the threats that make many voters undecided by the day. Undecided whom to vote for or unsure to even go out and vote.
If the mudslinging continues till the last day, there could be more than 5 million undecided voters by May 10, or roughly 10% of the 50 million voters supposed to be up for grabs this election. And not all of them are even voting. At least traditional voter turnout tells us about 12 million people (about 25%) do not usually make it to the precincts, add to that the undecided.
Hence there are around 17 million votes to be wasted this election, big enough to catapult our dear, non-existent President Undecided into Malacañang.
And the saddest part of the story is (as always) the second best man wins.
