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Reading the map

03/31/07

Posted under May 2007 elections, Media matters, Philippine politics

I share Manolo’s enthusiasm. Inquirer.net’s Philippine election map offers political junkies (to borrow that familiar blurb on many a box of toys) “hours and hours of fun.”

Serious fun too: The interactive map offers visual proof of a defining quality of Philippine politics, at least as this journalist understands it. Filipinos like to vote. (Corollarily, an election boycott is almost un-Filipino.)

Consider only the most famous instances: Those in the opposition who took part in the 1984 parliamentary elections (”participation without illusion”) and in the 1986 “snap” presidential election had a better grip on what Filipino voters wanted, and thus a better claim to being the electorate’s true representatives.

I have not clicked on all the buttons in the interactive map, but an early look at many of the areas suggests that voter turnout (measured as a percentage of registered voters in 2004 actually voting in the last presidential election) is in the high 70s or low 80s. That is, by the standards of mature democracies, a remarkably high turnout.

(And 2004 was not an isolated case; a “statistical analysis” by the helpful folks at the National Statistical Coordination Board, written just before the May 2004 elections, shows that Philippine elections over the years have been consistently high-turnout events.)

True, some of the country’s biggest cities have turnout rates in the 60s, but this may be a function of both continuing urban migration (perhaps recent migrants failed to register for the vote) and the cities’ sheer size.

I did a quick search of the city or municipality with the lowest turnout in 2004. The three lowest were recorded by Malita in Davao del Sur (57.15), San Jose in Surigao del Norte (55.71), and (the record-holder, or so it appears after a first search) Tongkil in Sulu (48.03). Perhaps not coincidentally, they are all in Mindanao.

(Santa Maria in Isabela had a 0-percent turnout, but considering that the 2004 vote in Isabela was a battle royale between Faustino Dy Jr. and Grace Padaca, this stat may be a glitch.)

Perhaps we can expect a lower turnout in May, because there is no presidential race to focus voters’ attention, but my money’s on a mere dip, not a drastic drop.

By John Nery
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Inquirer Current. A current-events blog by Inquirer columnist Manuel L. Quezon III and Inquirer editor John Nery.