Auto polls system lacks transparency — Namfrel

Contrary to what the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic-TIM Corp., the service provider, claim, the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), in its report released yesterday, said the May 10 elections were not as transparent and secure.

The Namfrel terminal report also said the random manual audit of certain precincts showed that the degree of variance was less than what was the required 99.995 percent accuracy.

The overall performance of the machine is 99.35 percent accuracy, which was below the required 99.995 percent, it noted.

While Namfrel acknowledged that the elections were fast and generally accurate, the automated election system “should be reviewed and remedial measures should be conducted for future elections.”

“While the system counted ballots with considerable speed, it nonetheless lacked sufficient methods for tracing and auditing the entire processes which would have been necessary had any problems arisen which were material to the results of the counting or the canvassing,” the report said.

The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), for its part, said it would be better if Comelec officials disclose at least 20 documents, including the Smartmatic-Comelec contract and annexes related to the conduct of the elections that it had requested last June 3.

The UP-based think tank also urged the poll body to desist from speculating about using the same poll automation for the 2013 elections unless issues over the credibility of the last polls are satisfactorily answered.

Comelec has yet to reply to the month-old letter.

“Unless the many errors of the Smartmatic automated election system (AES) are fixed and the procedural errors of Comelec are reviewed and corrected, we should not use the system again,” Dr. Pablo Manalastas, IT consultant of CenPEG, in a statement said.

In pursuit of its continuing study of the automation system, CenPEG had asked the Comelec to release election-related public documents including contract between Smartmatic and the poll body, source codes of the precinct count optical scan and CCS programs, SysTest Lab reports, and inventories of all the PCOS machines and CF cards used during the elections.

CenPEG has earlier called for an independent and impartial appraisal of the May 10 automated elections in the light of the absence of minimum safeguards and industry requirements as well as widespread technical breakdowns, voters’ disenfranchisement and signs of internal rigging that marred the recent elections.

The latest call on the Comelec to respond to its request came on the heels of the release of the report of the House committee on suffrage that found the May 10 elections flawed and anomalous. The Locsin committee concluded that the automated elections have a lot of issues that should be addressed immediately.

“Now that the Locsin Report has been released, it becomes imperative to further validate and firm up these findings with objective data from the field and actual documents of the Comelec and the election system provider,” CenPEG said in its follow up letter to the Comelec dated July 1.

“We know that such information is crucial in our search for facts and, which, in more likelihood, we could have asked with more ease had the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill been enacted into a law by the 14th Congress,” CenPEG added.

CenPEG added the statement of Comelec Chairman Jose Melo that “there is no turning back” was not only premature but also proves the commission’s insensitivity to public and congressional concerns advocating for an independent probe of the automated polls.

Moreover, the policy institute said, if Comelec is really transparent in dealing with its transactions, it should release the report on its investigation of the over-priced ballot secrecy folders instead of just endorsing it to the Ombudsman. The Comelec has within its administrative powers to subject any erring personnel under investigation and make them accountable, CenPEG said.

Meanwhile, defeated vice presidential candidate Manuel Roxas has found an ally in a former election watchdog in questioning the recently concluded May 10 elections.

This after, the Namfrel supported the Roxas’s decision to protest the results of the elections.

Namfrel secretary-general Eric Alvia said they support the protest so that the irregularities in the May 10 polls would be answered.

He added the protest would give them a chance to properly audit the voting machines and the ballots cast.

Another Namfrel official, Maricon Akol, said they would encourage Roxas to pursue the filing of his protest.

“If he’s going to file a protest, we can see what’s inside the ballot box and match it with the election returns,” she said.

She added Roxas could also use Namfrel report, which was also made public.

“We will share it to anybody,” Akol stressed, adding they would also furnish the Comelec and the lawmakers copies of the report.

In the May polls, Roxas, the running mate of President Benigno Aquino III, lost to Vice President Jejomar Binay by more than 700,000 votes. PNA