56 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy Aside from the continuing cases of electoral violence, the endemic flaws in the electoral system are further seen in the rampant practices of vote-buying, vote-padding and shaving (dagdag-bawas), voters' list rigged with ghost voters or double registrants, and overall weak electoral governance by the COMELEC.10 For instance, in 2011 Governor Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao estimated that in his province “about 40-60 percent of the current number of registered voter registrants are either ghost voters or double registrants” (Quiros 2011: A17). COMELEC data also indicate unusually large increases in the numbers of registered voters in the ARMM and Lanao del Sur from 2007-2010 with the former showing an increase of 42 percent and the latter, 83 percent. As for the well-established practice of vote-buying, NAMFREL observed that in the automated 2010 elections “the going rate for vote-buying ran from a low of P500. to occasional reports of up to P5,000. The high rates were attributed to multiple candidates trying to buy a vote from a single voter.” (NAMFREL 2010) Election Automation Pursuant to a new law (Republic Act No. 9369) approved in 2007 that sought the automation of elections in the country, the COMELEC put in motion an automated election system (AES) in the May 2010 simultaneous national and local elections. With a bidding process marked by controversy involving disqualification of bidders and reconsiderations by COMELEC, the joint venture firm, Smartmatic-TIM, won the contract for the automation project after being initially disqualified. A Barbados-registered company, Smartmatic, in partnership with another company, SAHI Technology, Inc., also won the bid for the 2008 ARMM election automation project. While deemed a success by the COMELEC and government officials, the automated elections in 2008 at the ARMM was given an overall assessment rating of “Poor” by the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), an independent, international elections monitoring group. ANFREL noted rampant electoral fraud, including among others, pervasive vote-buying, casting of multiple votes and phantom votes, appointing relatives of local officials as Board of Election inspectors, cases of voters being confused by the new technology, and an overall atmosphere of fear with the pervasive presence of local officials in the voting precincts and restricted movement of people days immediately prior to the election (ANFREL 2010). Local civil society organizations such as the Center for Peoples' Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) and the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) which sent observation teams to the 2008 ARMM elections also shared this negative overall assessment of the process (CenPEG 2008).