MANILA, Philippines - For all its imperfections, real or imagined, the first automated elections tomorrow would signal “the beginning of a massive transformational phase in the electoral system of the Philippines,” Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo said yesterday.
“We are finally moving away from the known flaws and weaknesses of the old ways of doing things and toward an automated election system that promises a speedy and accurate count, a highly efficient reporting mechanism that democratizes the count and canvass of election results, and most importantly, the extinction of dagdag-bawas (vote padding and vote shaving),” Melo said.
Massive cheating and violence characterized past Philippine elections, including the one in 2004 in which President Arroyo won the presidency allegedly through fraud with the help of some Comelec officials.
Melo said many nations would be keenly observing the country’s first automated elections. The country is the first in Asia to try to computerize “this big.”
“Most of the other countries are only partial. Japan is not automated. The interest is high, even among the Filipinos, so we expect a bigger turnout of voters,” he said.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the 2010 polls would be the “most watched” because “whatever happens to this election, other countries will learn from us.”
More than 50.8 millions voters, including more than half a million absentee voters, are expected to turn up at polling precincts tomorrow. Also for the first time, some 21,000 inmates will be allowed to vote in jails.
Up for grabs are 17,999 positions - one each for president and vice president, 12 for senators, 57 seats for party-list groups, 230 for congressmen, 80 each for governor and vice governor, 766 for provincial board member, 137 each for city mayor and city vice mayor, 1,497 for city councilors, 1,524 each for municipal mayor and vice mayor, and 11,980 for municipal councilors.
This year’s polls may also be remembered not only for automation but also for having the most number of presidential bets - nine.
They are survey frontrunner Sen. Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party; John Carlos de los Reyes of Ang Kapatiran Party; former President Joseph Estrada of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino; Sen. Richard Gordon of Bagumbayan; Jamby Madrigal, independent; Nicanor Perlas, independent; Gilbert Teodoro Jr. of Lakas-Kampi-CMD; Eduardo Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas; and Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party.
Under suspicion
For the P11.3-billion automation project, the Comelec has contracted Venezuelan firm Smartmatic International and its Filipino partner Total Information Management (TIM) to supply the 82,200 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for 76,340 polling precincts across the country. The additional machines will serve as backup.
Each machine can process a maximum of 1,000 voters in a clustered precinct of four to five polling precincts. It is also capable of reproducing the actual photographs of the official ballots.
Last Monday, some PCOS machines failed in test runs, not counting the votes cast for local candidates whose names are printed on the backside of the official ballots.
Cesar Flores, Smartmatic president for the Asia-Pacific, said they traced the glitches to misconfigured compact flash cards installed in each of the PCOS machines.
To solve the problem, Smartmatic-TIM replaced 62,000 of the cards and re-configured the rest.
For Jimenez, judging the Comelec and automated election system at this point is premature since voting has not even started.
“We are doing everything that we can to make the automated system and the election as clean, as peaceful and as credible as possible. The goal of the Comelec has never changed. It may have been obscured from time to time because of all of these things but over all, immediate and accurate results should be our main target,” he said.
Results in a flash
Smartmatic-TIM estimates that by midnight of May 10, some 50 to 70 percent of votes shall have been canvassed.
According to Jimenez, the whole process “probably takes about 48 hours, end to end.”
“Each polling precinct will generate an election return. The election returns are then electronically transmitted to the municipal or city Board of Canvassers that will generate a Certificate of Canvass. The certificate will then be transmitted to the Provincial Board of Canvass which eventually will generate the Provincial Certificate of Canvass to be sent to the National Board of Canvassers,” he said.
The Comelec will convene as the National Board of Canvassers for the senators and party-list groups while Congress will serve as the canvassing board for the president and vice president.
And at the same time that the election returns are being sent to the city and municipal canvassers, they are also being transmitted to the Comelec central server, and to the respective servers of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, the dominant majority party Lakas-Kampi-CMD, and the dominant minority party, the Liberal Party.
To transmit poll results, Smartmatic-TIM will utilize the facilities of Globe Telecom, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.-Smart and Sun Cellular.
In case there is no signal in a particular area, the results will be transmitted via satellite.
Contingency plans
The Comelec said it has contingency plans in case things don’t turn out as planned.
One of the back-up measures is the printing of 30 percent of the forms required for manual counting and canvassing like the election returns and the statement of votes and certificates of canvass.
“We have contingency plans. But we have always been confident that the automation will be a success because we have been preparing for this very well,” Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said.
Technicians will also be positioned at polling precincts and canvassing centers to ensure that the PCOS operations are uninterrupted.
Comelec Resolution 8839 lists down the various actions that technicians may take in various situations, like when the data storage is not available or when there is database service interruption, server hardware failure, power outage, network access failure and even when room temperatures become too high. There are also contingencies in case of fire, flooding and earthquake.
‘Automated Garci’
Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño has raised alarm over possible fraud in canvassing at the House of Representatives.
Casiño said they found out that the envelopes containing security tokens, password and username were not sealed when the system was installed at the House recently.
“We are very apprehensive that ‘automated Garci’ is in the offing,” he told reporters at the weekly Kapihan sa Sulo Hotel news forum.
Garci is widely believed to be former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano with whom Mrs. Arroyo reportedly talked about manipulating the results of the 2004 polls to ensure her victory. The wiretapped conversation between the two became the basis of impeachment cases against her.
Casiño said no representatives of the Comelec or Smartmatic were present when the server was installed at the House session hall.
“We are making our final appeal to the Comelec to address our concerns, we are against postponement of elections,” he said.
He said they have requested the Comelec to reinstall the computer system with new passwords, username and new security tokens to ensure the integrity of the system during the canvassing. - With Perseus Echeminada
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