Glitches, blunders, errors, failure marked 2010 polls — CenPeg

Despite a Supreme Court ruling ordering the Commission on Elections to release to several groups involved in checking on the integrity of the automated election system adopted by the Comelec on May 10, 2010, the source code and other pertinent documents for their testing purposes, the poll body has still not done so, and will likely be cited in contempt by the high court.

Despite the absence of the source code and other documents at the Post Election Summit (PES) organized by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPeg) yesterday at Club Filipino in San Juan, Professor Felix Muga pointed to a high incidence of technical glitches and hitches, blunders, voting procedural errors, and other operational failures throughout the country during the May 10, 2010 automated elections, citing among other things the: (a) Precinct Count Optical Scan malfunctioning, breakdowns as shown in many precinct incidents across the country, with the late deliveries, malfunction and shutdowns, unreliable back-up batteries, and equipment shortage marred the disposition and operation of PCOS machines, thus causing delays in the opening of voting, counting, and the

whole election day process itself;

(b) Defective compact flash cards. The delays in the delivery of reconfigured CF cards (in some cases, absence or loss of the memory cards) and using defective memory cards figured in the high-incidence reports, delaying Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) and voting, or absence of FTS. A high percentage of CF cards being brought manually to canvassing, and precincts resorting to manual voting were also reported. In many cases, this problem also resulted in failure of elections or in electoral protests involving the manipulation of CF cards; (c) Use of unofficial thermal Paper; (d) Failure to verify the authenticity of ballots as provided by law with the non-use of UV scanners by a significant number of precinct (Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs); (e) Irregularities in voting procedures & voter disenfranchisement; (f) Transmission snafus. The fact about extensive transmission glitches – not simply an isolated case – shows an unsound decision to enforce an election technology when the required telecommunication infrastructure is unreliable. The satellite contingency hit snags.

Muga said that based on their tabulation of the total voters who cast their votes on the precinct level, 33 millions were able to vote. But on the municipal level, their aggregate total reached 35 million while on the national level, the total reached 37 million voters.

According to Muga, Comelec announced 38 million voters cast their votes.

(g) Canvassing connectivity problems and discrepancies. The widespread mismatch of time stamps, discrepancies in audit logs, and canvassing print logs make the audit mechanism provided by Smartmatic-TIM unreliable and unsecure. Like the precinct-level failures, many municipal canvassing centers also had transmission glitches that obstructed transmission of canvassing results to the provincial and national canvassing; and, (h) Vote buying, violence & other irregularities; Other widespread irregularities were vote buying (“the most rampant in several years”), ballot pre-shading, and flying voters. There were many incidents of police and military personnel inside voting centers contrary to law. Election-related violence was perpetrated by private armed groups resulting in failure of election in many areas. Military and other security forces were also involved in reports of vilification campaigns against some Partylist groups and militarization in the rural provinces intimidating many voters.

Muga further said that the lack of safeguards and security measures made the automated election system (AES) vulnerable to automated fraud particularly in a country where cheating of various types persists as a norm during elections. Comelec records show at least 100 election protests from 41 provinces and cities by June 2010 have been filed.

“Many election cases apparently involved the complicity of certain Comelec officials, BEI members, and others,” said Muga. “In at least one case, allegations about the tampering of CF cards have been given credence in the Pasay City election protest with Comelec ordering a recount of the votes for the mayoralty contest.”

Muga also refuted Comelec claims the automated elections resulted in much quicker canvassing resulting to early proclamation of winners.

“Compared to the previous manual system. Mr. Aquino was proclaimed president on June 9, 2010 or 30 days after the May 10 election; Mr. Estrada was proclaimed on May 30, 1998, only 19 days after the May 11, 1998 election. The election turnout in the May 2010 election is 75 percent (which is conservative), the lowest in 24 years of presidential election,” said Muga. “What then is the basis of the claim of “fast” results, quicker voting, and more voters voting under AES?”

However, Muga said CenPeg remains optimistic that answers and clarifications on the questions and doubts about the accuracy, trustworthiness, and security of the PCOS and the whole election system can be discerned from the public documents it has requested “but which were denied perfunctorily by the Comelec en banc last July 26, 2010.”

Meanwhile, the Comelec may be cited for contempt for refusing to abide by the SC ruling ordering the poll body to release the source code and other documents related to the automated polls.

Lawyer Al Vitangcol said that with the SC decision promulgated Sept. 21 being final and executory, Comelec has not other recourse but to abide by the ruling and release the source code and other documents related to the May 10 polls.

“In our last meeting with other members of the Cenpeg legal team, there were suggestions that we either file a motion for execution, a manifestation for the Comelec to show cause or cite the Comelec for contempt,” said Vtangcol.

“But then, the SC decision is already final and executory so, we think we do not have to file anymore a motion for execution but to cite the Comelec for contempt for its continued refusal to release the election documents,” the lawyer stressed.

Cenpeg Executive Director Evy Jimenez concurred with Vitangcol but added they were giving the poll body five days up to Friday before asking the court to cite Comelec in contempt.

“We have submitted to Comelec chairman Jose Melo a joint demand letter signed with former Vice President Teofisto Guingona asking the poll body to heed the SC ruling and release to Cenpeg and all other interested parties within five days, the source code,, public keys used by the PCOS machines and CCS-REIS computers and sample of digitally signed documents, the user manual of the PCOS, encryption and decryption algorithms used by PCOS machines and CCS-REIS computers during transmission, the network topology diagram and documentation, has codes process documentation, digital signing protocols used and the Smartmatic – Comelec contract complete with annexes,” said Jimenez.

“If after five days, they still refuse to release those documents to us, we will be forced to ask the court to cite them in contempt.”

Last Sept. 21, in a unanimous en banc decision, the high court granted CenPEG’s petition for mandamus and directed the national poll body “to make the source codes for the AES technologies it selected for implementation pursuant to RA 9369 immediately available to CenPEG and all other interested parties or groups for independent review.”

With the ruling, Lito Averia, a CenPeg IT consultant, expressed optimism the Comelec would no longer withhold the source code anymore, as he cited the possibility that the election manager may file a motion for reconsideration with the high court and cause further delay in releasing this vital public election information.

In presenting the report, said that unless the Comelec releases those documents, people would be deprived of the chance to know what really transpired in the country’s first automated polls, which the poll watch body gave a failing mark. –Charlie V. Manalo, Daily Tribune