For the millions of Filipinos, the elections is an opportunity to make money.
No wonder the elections is treated like fiesta for most of the electorate. It’s that time when money becomes the most attractive tool to win votes. Sad as it may seem, we have to live with the fact that vote-buying and vote-selling will always be a part of the elections.
According to research, vote buying and selling obstructs the democratic process but it remains pervasive in many developing democracies, including the Philippines.
Let’s face it, vote buying and selling is illegal but remains rampant because of poverty.
What promotes the illegal practice is the spate of misfortunes millions of Filipinos went through with the pandemic and recent natural calamities which caused many their jobs and livelihood. Almost 3.3 million Filipinos were jobless in December, pushing the unemployment rate to 6.6%, worse than 6.5% in November.
The hard life surely pushed Filipinos to look forward to the elections as their one-time-big-time way of recouping the losses to the pandemic.
Vote buying could be harder to control now given more sophisticated means of transferring money, including GCash and online banking.
Is there hope for the country to break the culture of vote-buying and vote-selling?
For a country with a relatively young democracy, it is still a work in progress and will always be a work in progress. For democracy to flourish, it requires people to have confidence in themselves, in their leaders, and in the democratic processes, and who have the means for operating democratic institutions. Included in the tools that make democracy work are literacy, a willingness to abide by the rules of the game, and a rapid means of communication and transportation.
In every election, the voter is the one who wields power in an ideal democratic setting. If a voter accepts money from vote-buying candidates, it means the voter surrenders the power to shape the government by choosing leaders without external influences.
Sad, but it’s still very much an election culture.
