Public shows mistrust of automated elections

Public confidence in the first automated national election is ebbing less than four months before the May 10 polls.

Nervousness over the failure of transforming the manual voting procedures has mounted following the disclosure last week that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is behind in its timetable in installing the new system by election day.

The media last week reverberated with warnings from the private sector of the dire consequences from the failure of the conversion of the system into one driven by computerized machines or from the malfunctioning of the new counting machines, either through tampering or mechanical defects.

The feared consequences include, first, public unrest fomented by high expectations that the replacement of the manual system would do away with widespread fraud and, second, such an unrest could give reasons to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to declare a failure of elections, allowing her to hold on to office beyond the expiration of her term in June.

Public mistrust of the computerized system as a mechanism to end poll cheating is reflected in a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted on Oct. 24-27 last year and released on Thursday. The survey found that another people power revolt would happen should the May elections fail.

According to the survey, nearly half of Filipinos believe such an event would follow an election failure. The noncommissioned survey posed the following query to the respondents: “If the 2010 elections fail for any reason, e.g. malfunctioning of the counting machines, then people power will probably happen already.”

Forty-nine percent agreed with the statement, while 22 percent disagreed.

These results may not be taken as a reflection of the mood of the people to stage another Edsa revolt provoked by election irregularities. Rather it is an expression of their mistrust of the new counting machines.

The survey found that 47 percent feared the machines might be sabotaged, while 44 percent said they trusted the Comelec to ensure the safety of the ballots.

Fear of sabotage

The survey was taken in the run-up to the anniversary of the February 1986 People Power Revolution, triggered by the tampering of the Marcos-controlled Comelec of the results of the snap presidential election that month. Unofficial results canvassed by the Namfrel (National Citizens’ Movement for Free Election) then showed the opposition presidential candidate, Corazon Aquino, was leading President Ferdinand Marcos.

The SWS October survey found that the anxiety of another people power revolt in case of a failure of elections was more pronounced in Luzon outside Manila (58 percent) and Metro Manila (54 percent), the center of Edsa I, than in Mindanao and the Visayas. In Mindanao, 40 percent agreed with the election, and in the Visayas, 33 percent agreed.

On the issue of the counting machines being rigged, respondents were asked: “The machines that will be used to count the votes in the 2010 election can easily be sabotaged in order to fake the election results.”

Forty-seven percent of respondents agreed with the statement, 28 percent disagreed, while 23 percent neither agreed nor disagreed.

Fears of sabotage of the automated election count system were overshadowed by anxieties over the readiness of the Comelec to undertake the automated poll project.

Worries over delays

The Makati Business Club (MBC), a group of business organizations critical of the Arroyo administration, stepped up pressure on the Comelec to install the automated system by May 10. It added its voice to warnings by other sectors that the May elections might fall back to the traditional manual counting if the new system was not in place by May.

In a statement to the media last week, the MBC revealed delays in the timetable of installing the new system that were likely to abort its scheduled.

The statement pointed out that the government had been cramming to implement the project since Congress approved the Automated Election System and its budget of P11.3 billion in May 2009. On July 13, the Comelec approved the Smartmatic contract for 82,200 PCOS (precinct count optical scan) machines, seven weeks behind schedule, 10 months before the May election.

Since the award of the contract to Smartmatic in July last year, delivery of the machines has been delayed to Feb. 28, without penalties being imposed, leaving two months between delivery completion and election day.

The Comelec belatedly realized the contract did not include the required ballot boxes, forcing it to scamper to award this contract without bidding.

Logistics nightmare

Former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban has pointed out the delayed delivery of the machines required shortening of the timetables and delays in the completion dates of the customization, field testing, training of Comelec personnel and printing of ballots.

Panganiban has noted that with 1,630 municipalities in the country, there will be 1,630 sets of local candidates whose names will have to be printed on 1,630 types of ballots, requiring software on the machines to be customized 1,630 ways.

Customization alone presents a logistics nightmare to Comelec.

This disruptive development provides a compelling reason to the call of civil society groups, including the Makati Business Club, on the Comelec to refocus its efforts on preparing for “the best manual election it can organize.”

This fallback is as messy as the haphazard automation project because it requires mobilization of a broad range of civil society groups, including the Church and media, to mount a concerted effort for clean and credible manual election.

The antiquated manual system has been a breeding ground of election cheating because prolonged delays in announcing official results has offered opportunities for altering results.

The Comelec faces a hasty and chaotic retreat, but we should ask: Who will benefit from this plunge into disorder? Is the poll body capable of organizing an orderly change of plans? –Amando Doronila, Philippine Daily Inquirer