Comelec should say so if the job is just too big

HELP NEEDED?: If the Commission on Elections is starting to feel overwhelmed by the Herculean job of managing the national elections that are just a month away (!), it better say so this early so non-partisan citizens groups can help out in good faith in a systematic way.

Although the first-time automated elections for 17,888 posts nationwide involving some 35 million voters seem to be running into serious technical and administrative problems, it is premature to declare that massive fraud and a failure of election are in the offing.

Sometimes running scared produces results. But the best move at this point, we think, is to first define the problems and work out solutions — with the help of non-government entities if the Comelec cannot do it alone.

The nature and measure of various problem areas were presented the other day by the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) in a media briefing a few blocks away from the Comelec headquarters in Intramuros.

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CRITICAL ISSUES: Namfrel officers led by chairman Jose L. Cuisia reported these problems, among other worrisome details, in the automated elections system:

1. The number of registered voters rose by 12.7 percent from last election of 2007, the biggest leap of 42 percent being in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, locale of the infamous “Hello Garci” poll operations of 2004.

2. Errors in the Certified Voters Lists persist, including padding by an estimated three million names. The Comelec’s education and information department has identified some 705,000 multiple registrants across the country that it has bundled under a “Watch List.”

3. The benefits of the optical counting machines designed to speed up counting and reporting have been compromised by the use of wrong ultraviolet ink on the ballots, the removal of digital signatures, the lack of an early review of the program source code and the back-up or disaster recovery processes.

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START WITH LISTS: A basis for confusion may have been laid already even before voters have filled out their ballots. As we have long pointed out, fraud could result from the corruption of the registry of voters supposedly cleaned by the Comelec.

This murky pre-voting stage is not covered by the automated optical machines that have cost taxpayers more than P7 billion.

Namfrel estimates that some three million names should not be on the lists, but tracing and removing them is impossible in the one month left before the elections. In the first place, the lists are not available yet to the public.

Samples of irregular registration discovered: 36 voters with identical names in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro; 10 similar names with different middle names or spelling in Balo-i, Lanao del Norte; names of dead persons still on the lists in Sugpon and Sta Lucia, Ilocos Sur, and in Mandaluyong. Btw, Mandaluyong has 187 voters who are at least 100 years old.

Cuisia said good-quality indelible ink should be used to mark voters’ fingers to ensure they cannot vote again. He noted that in the past the Comelec bought ink that could be washed away easily. Will they do it again this time? Under what pretext?

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GIANT LEAP: Applying the National Census and Statistics Board annual average population growth rate of 1.95 percent, the Namfrel said the reasonable increase in the growth in the number of registered voters over a three-year period should be 6 to 8 percent.

The 45.03 million voters registered in 2007 are now 50.74 million, or an increase of 12.65 percent. Looking back, there were 43.44 million voters registered in 2004 elections, giving the 2007 elections a 3.43-percent increase over 2004.

The biggest increase from 2007 to 2010 — 42 percent — was in the ARMM, remembered for being the epicenter of the “Hello Garci” controversy in the 2004 elections, and which remains unresolved.

Every province in ARMM recorded an increase higher than the national average. Maguindanao province, base of the Ampatuan dynasty, registered an increase in number of registered voters of (hold your breath!) 82 percent from the 2007 to the 2010 elections.

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CHECK NAME EARLY: It is likely that many voters will not find their names on the thick lists to be posted near polling precincts on May 10.

The old precincts of 200-250 voters each have been regrouped into four or five precincts per cluster of some 1,000 voters. The names (including new voters) are likely to have been scrambled, and the voters assigned to precincts with different numbers.

With just a month before May 10, voters are advised to check their names early with their local Comelec offices and go to the precincts early on Election Day.

Those who have access to the Internet, can also check by logging on to http:www.comelec.gov.ph/precintfinder/precintfinder.aspx. (Delete the period at the end.)

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COSTLY U-V ERROR: On the technical side, one significant deviation from the original plan is the disabling of the counting machines’ capability to read the ultraviolet marks on the ballots to check their authenticity.

The Comelec said that was done because the wrong ultraviolet ink was used in the rush printing of the ballots. But Cuisia noted that this was discovered as early as last January and should have been corrected much earlier.

The Comelec spent another huge sum to buy portable UV readers to check the ballots manually. Cuisia expressed surprise that a very sophisticated and expensive machine was sidelined and its reading task delegated to a cheaper hand-held device.

Somebody should pay for this costly error. –Federico D. Pascual Jr. (The Philippine Star)

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