No certainty yet for auto polls, says Comelec chief

The proposed automated elections next year now face a new hurdle, computer trans-missions, which, if not assured for at least 25 percent of the country, would make the Commission on Elections (Comelec) revert to manual polling next year, Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said yesterday.

The May 2010 poll auto-mation will once again be in peril if its contracted suppliers, Smartmatic Corp. and Total Information Management (TIM), fail to ensure that there is the infrastructure for the transmis-sion system nationwide, he said.

Acting director Jeannie Flororito of the Comelec-Information Technology Department had revealed at least 25 percent of the country is not hooked to a telecommunications system.

Melo in an interview said “we would likely go manual if that 25 percent is not provided with an appropriate technology.”

He added that the law explicitly states that the May 2010 polls should be “fully automated,” therefore partial automation would be impossible to implement.

During the demonstration of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine for members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), Flororito said 75 percent of the areas where the more than 82,000 PCOS machines will be deployed have in place the necessary mode of transmission system.

Cesar Flores, spokesman for Smartmatic-TIM, said there is no exact figure yet on these areas that have no proper technology or communications infrastructure.

“We are still in the process of determining that,” Flores said in a separate interview.

Renato Garcia, Comelec ICT consultant in another interview said they have met last week with telecommunications providers, in particular Smart Communications Inc, Globe Telecom and Digitel as well as local communications providers and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and agreed to survey the areas next month to determine what are these places that Smartmatic-TIM may place the infrastructure to implement the transmission system.

“We met with them early this month and appealed to their support (for the provision of technical solutions),” Garcia said.

He said there are number of ways they are now exploring in order to cover the areas that have no mode of transmission.

“There are other options, like using wimax going to the nearest point, or IP radios but mobile satellite is the last resort and that would be on the island barangay like Kalayaan,” Garcia further explained.

The survey which will start first week of October will end middle of November in order to give the Comelec the time to evaluate the chances of full automation being carried out in next year’s election.

Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino meantime said by Dec. 15 they could fully disclose if automation will push through or not.

The Comelec is expecting the delivery of the 20,000 first batch of PCOS next month while the remaining 60,000 more will be delivered in November and December respectively.

A lawmaker from Zamboanga del Norte, meanwhile, expressed serious apprehensions about the failure of the Commission on Elections to test the automated counting machines in several places in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao prior to the conduct of the real elections on May next year.

According to Rep. Antonio Cerilles of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, the possibility of a failure of elections is high given the current scenario when teachers have not been trained about the counting machines and the warning aired by Energy Secretary about the possible widespread power failure next year.

“There should be a pilot testing in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, but the Comelec did not do that,” Cerilles said yesterday during the Usaping Balita News Forum at the Serye Restaurant in Quezon City.

Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco also shared Cerilles views even as he added that uneducated voters could also contribute to the failure of elections.

Former congressman Prospero Pichay, who now heads the Local Water Utilities Administration, said the two percent of the voting population are illiterate.

“Two percent illiterate voters can make a difference,” Pichay said.

Cerilles said that the Commission on Elections cannot afford to experiment in the May 10, 2010 elections.

Cerilles, who was one of the three lawmakers who had filed a petition before the Supreme Court in connection with the possible failure of elections, proposed that the automation should be done only from the municipal level not on the precinct level where the need for 80,000 counting machines is imperative.

By his proposal, the number of counting machines could be reduced to only around 20,000.

“In case you file a protest, what evidence are you going to present,” he said.  –Marie Surbano and Gerry Baldo, Daily Tribune