No turning back from auto polls despite fraud — Melo

Melo made the statement in response to the Locsin committee’s findings that a systematic form of cheating occurred in the last elections but affecting only the local level and not the national positions.

While admitting he has yet to read the committee report in full, Melo said he cannot entirely comprehend what Locsin is claiming considering that the Comelec only used a single type of ballot and a standard program installed in the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

“The way I understand it (Locsin’s claims), the defects he’s talking about are not in the machines but in the process and the people involved. Now, when he said that the national elections are okay but there were problems at the local level, that’s difficult to understand because there is only one ballot and there is only one machine which reads it. You can’t say that there was cheating on this side and on the other side there was none,” Melo argued.

Melo expressed belief that the result of the automated elections last May would be the best argument to apply a similar system in the 2013 senatorial and local elections but he explained that the decision is left for the 15th Congress to make depending on its budget deliberation.

Melo added that he is also unsure if the services of technology provider, Smartmatic, that supplied the PCOS machines used in the last elections that were later on found out to be susceptible to elements of fraud, would be retained for future elections.

“It depends on what our advisers will tell us. If they will tell us that (it is safe for us to go on then we will use also the same PCOS machines,” he said.

Melo, nonetheless, said the Comelec is standing by its previous statements that the 2010 elections have been credible enough given the fact that the poll body was able to release results in an unprecedented speed and proclaim winners earlier than before.

Saying it was too late for Locsin to point out the just concluded automated elections was marred with flaws, a militant lawmaker yesterday called on the incoming Congress to create a special commission to investigate the 2010 Automated Election System (AES).

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño made the recommendation following the release of a report by the House committee on electoral reforms and suffrage saying that there were evidences of poll cheating especially in the local level.

In a text message, Casiño said that the 15th Congress should immediately create a special committee to look into the reported fraud so that this may be corrected for the next automated elections.

“An independent commission should investigate the AES and recommend adjustments for the 2013,” Casino said.

Casiño averred Locsin made a late reaction on the automated elections since these issues of poll cheating were repeatedly identified and brought to the attention of Congress.

Casiño added that even before the automation was implemented, the progressive bloc had issued warnings on the possible cheating ways that might launch by the unscrupulous groups of In his 27-page report, Locsin said there is evidence which showed how the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines were used in poll fraud.

Because of this, Locsin said, he will not recommend to the next government the conduct of automated elections in 2013 until loopholes are plugged.

“Before the next automated election, all the loopholes in the PCOS and the automated election process should be firmly plugged by either the current provider or by another more assiduous supplier. If not, a reversion to manual elections with heightened vigilance by organizations like the PPCRV and Namfrel would probably yield more credible and accurate results,” Locsin said.

He also said that manual elections would be better since it is easy to verify who are behind the cheating.

“PCOS machines had one good virtue, and that it allowed people to see if they were used for electronic cheating. Candidates came forward to show that there was voting that started at 10 in the evening, there was voting on other days and there was pre-shading ballots. Smartmatic tried to give one explanation after another, but none of the explanations held, and in the end, they admitted they cannot explain,” Locsin said.Locsin also stressed that some boards of election inspectors actively participated in fraud practices and that poll machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM was not able to prove that the machines cannot be used for fraud.

“The problem is not automation but the people running the automation. Guns really don’t shoot people, people shoot people. Machines don’t cheat, people do. Unfortunately, the same people are still running Comelec despite periodic changes of Commissiomers over the years and the leadership of well-meaning chairmen such as the incumbent,” Locsin stressed.

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, meanwhile, disputed the Locsin committee’s report regarding alleged “systematic fraud” marking the 2010 automated elections, calling it “without any basis (or) concrete proof.”

Charlie V. Manalo, Ted Boehnert

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) believes there is no turning back from automated elections even with the findings of a House body that systematic cheating was evident in the country’s first electronic vote last May 10.

House committee on suffrage and and electoral reforms chairman outgoing Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. said due to the many instances of fraud noted in the past automated polls, the committee had proposed the discarding of electronic voting in the next national elections in 2013.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo told reporters that after the holding of the last automated elections, “there is no turning back to manual.”

“We would like to have automated elections, the people will no longer accept the next elections (if these are) not automated. But it all depends also on the appropriations to be given by Congress,” Melo said.

Melo said it would be difficult now for the public to get back to “old school voting procedures” notwithstanding the issues raised against the P7.2 billion automated elections system provided by Smartmatic. –Aytch S. de la Cruz, Daily Tribune