50 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy this vote-tampering in the province and other ARMM areas benefited the candidates of the ruling party. Moreover, the worst election-related violence also took place at Maguindanao province on November 23, 2009 with the massacre of 58 persons including 34 journalists.9 During election years, more deaths in fact are caused by election-related violence than by the usual encounters between the military and armed guerrillas of either the communist or Muslim insurgencies. Finally, the 2010 automated elections also did not put an end to the country's long history of electoral fraud despite the triumphalist pronouncements of the Commission on Elections. Elections and Accountability Accountability is important for the functioning of democratic systems because it “implies an exchange of responsibilities and potential sanctions between rulers and citizens…”(Schmitter 2004: 47).This recognition of an accountability process involving monitoring and sanctioning resources is all the more important in a democratic system where there is no guarantee that citizen's choices and policy preferences would be respected by governing rulers and representatives (Manin, Przeworski, and Stokes 1999: 40). How are the peoples' interests represented in a democratic system and what role do elections play in this process? Manin et al. provide a succinct explanation (1999: 29): The claim connecting democracy and representation is that under democracy governments are representative because they are elected: if elections are freely contested, if participation is widespread, and if citizens enjoy political liberties, then governments will act in the best interest of the people. In this assumed virtuous cycle, what role do elections play? The same authors provide two models for understanding the role of elections. In the first model – a 'mandate' view— “…elections serve to select good policies or policy-bearing politicians. Parties or candidates make policy proposals during campaigns and explain how these policies would affect citizen's welfare; citizens decide which of these proposals they want implemented and which politicians to charge with their implementation, and governments do implement them.” (Manin et al.1999: 29).