Project 30-30 is an education and election monitoring project of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) that aims to address the problem of electoral fraud by helping arrest the disastrous effects of the 30+ vulnerabilities of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) Automated Election System (AES). AES is being implemented for the first time throughout the Philippines in the May 20, 2010 synchronized national and local elections. The project also seeks to push for the implementation of the 30 safeguards and remedial measures to ensure the poll automation’s success.

A two-year project, Project 30-30 is funded by the European Union (EU) through the EU Delegation in the Philippines. Project partner organizations are the Coordinating Council for People’s Development and Governance (CCPDG), National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU), National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), and Health Alliance for Democracy (Head). CenPEG and its project partners have nationwide networks and alliances as well as public advocacy and education programs that will be tapped to meet the objectives of Project 30-30.

As an education and monitoring activity, Project 30-30 envisions to increase the level of understanding and capacity of the civil society community especially people’s organizations and NGOs on the complexities, vulnerabilities, and critical areas of the AES. It aims to cover and reach as many people and communities at the grassroots level in the broad efforts to safeguard their votes and counter election fraud. It will also seek wider consultations and unite the Filipino information communications technology (ICT) as well as legal profession enabling them to share their competencies and expertise in weeding out the glitches and risks that threaten the technological and legal integrity of the poll automation.

The results of the studies as well as concrete lessons derived from the two-year project will serve as the basis for electoral reform and the engagement of CenPEG, its project partners, and other election multi-stakeholders in advocating for electoral and political reform.

 

Project Activities

The Project 30-30’s main activities are:

1. Policy Research and Documentation
   
   This project activity will basically continue CenPEG’s long-term and comprehensive study of the automated election system, centering on the system’s technical, management, and legal aspects. The study coverage will also deal on the AES’s 30 vulnerabilities and corresponding 30 safeguards that were identified by CenPEG as early as April 2009.
   
   Along with the other project activities, study results in the form of reports and documentation will provide the basis for policy proposals that will address the paramount need for electoral reform in the search for fair, transparent, fraud-free, and democratic elections.

2. Voters’ Education and Training
   
   Seminars and people’s forums will be organized across the country for the holding of voters’ education and training on the automated elections. Voters’ education and training aims to target leaders and volunteers from all walks of life including schools, ecumenical groups, grassroots and community organizations, and other sectors as well as special groups like poll watchers, human rights watchdogs, lawyers, and media.
   
   The content of voters’ education and training include linking human rights and voters’ rights and responsibilities; the political environment of the elections and criteria for choosing candidates; the election process and the AES’ 30 risks and 30 safeguards; developing competencies and skills for poll watching and documentation; and the Election Monitoring Scoreboard.
   

3. Advocacy, Lobbying, and Campaign
   
   This activity aims to raise the people’s awareness and civil society organizations’ (CSOs) involvement in instituting meaningful reforms in the country’s electoral system. Advocacy and lobbying will focus on drawing support from legislative bodies, political parties, and government officials toward the enactment of laws and policies central to democratizing and upgrading the election process.
   
   
4. Poll Watching and Monitoring
   
   The formation of election monitoring watch teams is the most crucial, most demanding, and most action-oriented activity of Project 30-30. Through the joint efforts of all the project actors together with scores of civil society organizations, the project aims to form poll watch groups in all levels, from the national to the communities. Election watch, which will also involve monitoring the last stages of Comelec preparations for poll automation, as well as monitoring during and after the May 10 elections, aims to protect the vote, ensure the peaceful turnover of government, and is also geared toward electoral reform.
   
   A special component of this project activity is the People’s International Observers’ Mission (PIOM). PIOM 2010 will monitor, investigate, document, and report the country’s first automated elections based on ground reports during the elections throughout the country. Members of the international observers mission will come from several countries, including parliamentarians, church leaders, civil libertarians, academic scholars, trade union leaders, students, human rights defenders, and media.
   
   
5. Networking and Multi-Stakeholders’ Dialogues
   
   CenPEG, along with its project partners, will continue to reach out to more CSOs, explore wider partnerships, and adopt collective and concrete platforms toward ensuring clean, honest, and transparent elections. This Action has already given birth to broad formations and networks nationwide connecting people’s organizations and NGOs, the country’s major IT schools, key poll watch groups, ecumenical bodies engaged in voters’ rights, public administrators, legislators, and civil libertarians.
   
   Envisioned in this activity is the holding of a major multi-stakeholders’ conference on the elections. Dialogues will continue with both the Commission on Elections (Comelec), and the Philippines Congress through its Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) on the automated elections.
   
   
6. Publications and Multi-Media Materials
   
   This will involve the development and production of information, education, and communication materials in popular forms and language. Publications and multi-media materials including audio-visual productions, manuals, primers, and popular brochures which will involve their dissemination and active use among poll watch volunteers, watchdogs, and voters in general will raise people’s critical awareness and deepen their understanding about the elections, the AES, human rights and voters’ rights, and so one. Materials will be developed with specific focus on the nuances, complexities, and vulnerabilities of the AES. 7.
   
   
7. Conferences and Round-Table Discussions
   
   Project 30-30 plans to hold a Filipino ICT Conference on the AES. It will aim to showcase the expertise and level of technology of the Filipino ICT community which has not been optimized by the Comelec prior to and during its preparations for the AES. The results of the conference are expected to provide lessons and guidelines that will involve the ICT community, among other key sectors, in safeguarding the poll automation and in the overall electoral reform.
   
   Also in the blueprint is the holding of a post-election national CSO conference. The post-election conference will assess the conduct and results of the May 10 automated elections as well as the major activities and other efforts contributed by the Project 30-30 partners and their networks that will serve as basis for electoral reform and democratic people’s advocacy. Other forums and round-table discussions are also planned for the two-year project.

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