i think FPJ and his devilish advocates are still working with the premise that popularity=votes. being a famous movie actor whose career extends through several decades, his popularity with the masses does indeed exceed that of pgma, so there is a strong impulse on his part to actually believe and expect that popularity will bring in votes and, at least, give him an edge over pgma.
but i guess he didn't count on the many changes that could happen, one of which is the shifting attitude of the electorate as one study has suggested:
"The discussions indicated that celebrities are not necessarily preferred by poor voters and that the rich and famous do not necessarily have the edge. Neither do the educated. In fact, while many among the focus-group participants said they value educational qualifications, they were also suspicious about those with superior education."
they actually do consider other factors in making their choices. yes, it does suggest growing maturity among the electorate belonging to the poorer sectors of society. i honestly feel that instead of being thrilled at FPJ's candidacy, they may have been insulted by it, since they knew that they would've been casted as mindless fans electing him into office. i guess i finally found in this election the confirmation of the study that i was asking for in my prior post. a sign of hope indeed.
FPJ and his backers probably believed thier own propaganda and believed that the everyone would be voting according to class: the poor for FPJ, the middle and upper classes for PGMA. they probably didn't count on the phenomena of regional voting as suggested by the SWS exit poll, which shows that much of luzon voted for FPJ while much of visayas and mindanao voted for PGMA. this is supported by the study above, which also states that PGMA had massive support from the poor when she ran for vice president.
and what's the purpose of destroying the credibility of the comelec and of the namfrel? is he going to win if he berates the namfrel? the namfrel merely does a UNOFFICIAL quick count. if one wins in the namfrel count, it doesn't make him/her the president-elect. even if their allegations of trending were true, it wouldn't matter since it is unofficial, the results will never determine who goes to malacanang palace. although its results will eventually become basis for supporting or questioning the comelec's official count.
not even the comelec canvassing determines the next president. nope. it's the congress' job to declare who the president-elect would be. the funny thing is that they seem to be alone in their allegations of cheating. the philippine media, the freest in southeast asia, exposes nothing; and the Philippine Church, which has been the institutionn most vocal against such things and which has its own electoral watchdog, is silent.
what then if FPJ turns out to be the real winner in the elections? wouldn't his constant allegation of a failed election actually work against him? he couldn't be the real winner since, as he alleges, the elections were marred by fraud. and, if so, wouldn't he be the cheater?
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