Failed polls fears up as PCOS malfunction

Smartmatic admits glitches, errors; Testing junked, 76,000 flash cards recalled

Six days before the precincts open for the electorate to cast their vote using the new system of automated polls, real fears of a total failure of elections and a no-election scenario surfaced yesterday as precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines tested virtually nationwide, all failed, with the machines giving out zero votes to some candidates, while some candidates had all the votes.

Machine supplier Smartmatic and Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials also yesterday tried to allay the public’s fear, saying that these machine glitches that were experienced in areas where machines were tested, are easily fixed, adding that it was human error that led to the failure of the machines to correctly read votes for local positions.

Smartmatic Southeast Asia president Cesar Flores admitted its mistake and said the company is taking full responsibility for it, as Smartmatic failed to properly configure compact flash disks of the PCOS machines to properly read the votes for the local races because of a difference in the layouts of the national and local ballots.

“The PCOS machine incorrectly read the local ballot because the local ballot has double spacing. If you look at the national (ballot), they are all single spaced.”

“If you mark the first row, it will be read correctly but for some reason, the configuration is telling the machine that the candidate on the second row is actually on a third row due to the spacing,” he claimed during the press conference at the Comelec office in Manila.

Due to the malfunctioning of the PCOS, Comelec said it will defer the final testing and sealing of the more than 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to Thursday.

Smartmatic announced the replacement of all flash cards placed in the PCOS machines after the machines rejected the ballots during the testing and sealing Monday night.

Flores said they have decided to summarily replace all the flash cards saying “the procedure is to replace the compact flash with the corrected configuration. This will force us to stop sealing for the next couple of days and resume on Thursday.”

A total of 82,200 flash cards have been assigned to each of the PCOS machines containing machine-specific precinct information.

Section 12 of Republic Act No. 9369 requires the examination and testing of the PCOS machines by the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) at least three to seven days before Election Day and seal them with finality as it will not be opened again until Election Day.

Reports indicated that during the testing and sealing of the machines in some precincts in Makati, Muntinlupa, Pateros, Batangas and Mindoro and even in many other provinces, the machines counted votes incorrectly and even gave zero counts for other candidates.

But Flores explained that the error happened when “wrong instructions” were inputted to the machines thus resulting to wrong results.

“There were flash cards carrying information in the PCOS and was not able to locate certain candidates to positions… Technically, it’s an easy correction,” Flores assured.

Asked why the problem surfaced only now, with only six days before Election Day, Flores claimed that the use of official ballots in the final testing and sealing process was different, unlike previous tests done by the commission.

“Remember, every ballot is tested for machine readiness at the National Printing Office, which means we checked the integrity of marks and alignment of ballots but ballots are not shaded, therefore, you cannot test shading through PCOS,” said Flores.

He admitted that they are racing against time now in making sure that the final testing and sealing would take place on time.

“The challenge is to make available those cards to the field. How to logistically address this is the challenge… It is a tight schedule but it can be done and it will be done,” said Flores.

Despite this crisis, the supplier assured critics that the integrity of the elections will be kept in place as they will not allow any PCOS machine to be used using “misconfigured” flash cards.

“The assurance is you will do testing and sealing again. And no machine that cannot pass it will be used during the elections,” stressed Flores.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal meantime said they ordered to suspend delivery of PCOS machines to their respective destinations.

Larrazabal pointed that they want to make sure that it would be easier for them to be replaced with the corrected flash cards.

“All PCOS machines at the (regional) hubs have been ordered to remain at the hubs for speedier replacement of the flash cards,” said Larrazabal.

Based on their Rules of Procedures, the PCOS machines are set to be brought from the regional hubs to the provincial treasurers’ offices before they are brought to municipal and down to the polling precincts.

Also yesterday, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento admitted that the poll body could not conduct manual elections beyond the 30 percent contingency they have prepared earlier.

He noted that the Comelec had already prepared to utilize the manual system by having printed elections paraphernalia and forms earlier to serve as their backup plan.

“We can go manual for 30 percent. But what exceeds 30 (percent), that has to be deliberated by the commission en banc,” Sarmiento said.

“As of the moment, no (we are not prepared for anything beyond 30 percent).”

The Comelec official also ruled out the possibility of the parallel manual count being pushed by the business, IT and lawyers group as checked and balance.

For its part, the Comelec said they will still be discussing the possible sanctions to be hurled against Smartmatic.

Sarmiento, however, said it is not an immediate concern as of the moment. “That’s for the commission en banc to discuss. We are focused on this issue of elections and that has to be discussed later on,” Sarmiento said.

Fears that national elections in the Philippines next week could descend into chaos grew on Tuesday after authorities said they had detected a major technological flaw with vote-counting machines.

The Comelc admitted it now faced a major logistical challenge in having to replace memory cards for 82,000 machines that are to be used in the country’s first attempt at a computerised tallying of ballots.

“We are not sugar-coating this. This is definitely a setback, but one that is not insurmountable,” said Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ray Anthony Chua, who is part of the commission’s advisory body.

Chua and other officials insisted that the faulty memory cards, which carry software telling the machines how to read the ballots, could be replaced in time and that the elections would be credible.

But the announcement fueled widespread concerns across all sides of politics that the computerized vote-counting experiment could prove to be a failure with extremely dangerous consequences.

More than 50 million voters will go to the polls on Monday to choose a new president as well as thousands of lower-level government positions.

Critics of the system have said it is too complicated to “correct” the flaws for the country of more than 7,000 islands, and that a parallel manual count should be carried out.

Bobby Tuazon, policy studies director at the Center for People Empowerment and Governance, said he doubted whether there would be enough time to correct the problem.

“This will raise doubts about the winners and results. This will just increase fears among the public,” said Tuazon.

An election lacking in credibility could lead to a dizzying range of chaotic scenarios, including people taking to the streets in support of presidential candidates who may lose but challenge the result.

Meanwhile, military National Capital Region Command (NCRCom) chief Rear Admiral Feliciano Angue said they were advised by the Comelec to hold the scheduled delivery of PCOS machines to various polling centers in Metro Manila to address the problem regarding the memory cards.

The NCRCom, along with the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), on Monday secured the delivery of 2,928 PCOS machines in various parts of Metro Manila. A total of 7,555 machines are assigned to cover polling centers throughout the metropolis.

The NCRCOm chief, however, said he does not see any problem to the delivery of the remaining PCOS machines, now being kept at the Comelec NCR hub in Quezon City.

“We only need about two days to complete it, two days in a normal delivery (day time only), so if we do it day and night, it could be less, maybe just over a day,” said Angue.

“The AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and the PNP (Philippine National Police) have no problem as far as our tasking is concerned. –Marie A. Surbano, with Mario J. Mallari, Daily Tribune