At the launch this morning of the first socio-political networking site in the country -politicalarena.com, Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Chairman Jose A.R. Melo listed down the gains the Filipino people will stand to benefit once we fully automate the way we do our elections in the country.

“The 2010 elections is coming up fast, and the Filipino nation is looking forward to it, quite possibly with more anticipation than any of us can imagine,” Melo told an audience of more than a hundred people at the launch of the website which promises to give voters instant access to candidates and their platforms.

“With automation, we will drastically minimize the impact of human intervention in the process. Teachers serving on the Boards of Election Inspectors (BEI) will not have to stay up – and stay under tremendous pressure – as long as they used to, thereby minimizing the risk to them,” Melo said.

The COMELEC chief added that automation will definitely speed up the electoral process as well. “With the precinct level counting done within an hour, and results available within thirty-six, we will see an electoral exercise unprecedented in the rapidity with which our people will know who the winners will be.”

All in all, Melo said, the poll body is confident that the coming 2010 elections will be “breaking all sorts of records and defying all sorts of gloomy predictions” about the continuing vibrancy and viability of our electoral process.

But Melo emphasized that in order to make the 2010 elections truly something for the record books; political players, the engaged private sector, and the COMELEC must all work together.

“And so we urge everyone who intends to play some role – large or small, as a candidate or as a simple partisan, or as a responsible citizen – to commit ourselves to several key imperatives.”

Among the key imperatives Melo pointed out are the promotion of voters’ registration and protecting the safety and security of the voters – starting this early, on through the campaign and even beyond.

“We who hold ourselves out as leaders of our people, we must guarantee that we will represent the best values, that we will conduct ourselves as befitting servants of the sovereign people, and that we will adhere to the strictest standards of truth, responsibility, courtesy, and respect in everything that we do.”

“And we who, in the near future, might find ourselves at odds with each other, we must all pledge that above all else, we will uphold the credibility and the integrity of the elections – this bedrock of our democracy,” said Melo.