Elections

WITH only six days to Election Day, the Commission on Elections and its technology provider Smartmatic International Corp. must replace the compact flash cards on 76,300 voting machines after many of them failed in testing Monday.

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…

MANILA, Philippines – Fears of election failure intensified yesterday after some of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) failed test runs in some parts of the country, prompting a stop to the testing and a recall of the machines.

EXCESSIVE government spending for election-related projects will trigger inflation and higher deficit, Nacionalista Party senatorial bet Gwen Pimentel warned on Friday.

CEBU, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has come up with a policy wish list it wants voters to consider in casting their ballots on May 10.

VOTING DETAILS: Pass on these notes on election procedures for May 10 culled by Kenneth Yu from a seminar arranged by barangay captain Ralph Diaz (sorry, his barangay was not identified):

Let me echo the call of former Chief Justice and FEU alumnus Art Panganiban for all voters to make enlightened choices in the upcoming May 2010 elections. And I cannot overemphasize the importance of the need for clean, honest and orderly elections in a democracy such as ours. The vote of the people is “sacred…

Some 30 to 50 percent of the voters will surely be disenfranchised, as proved by the mock elections conducted by the Commission on Elections at the UNTV in Quezon City Thursday April 29.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday threw out a proposal to conduct a full parallel manual count for the 2010 national and local elections on May 10, saying that a parallel count is a “regressive step” that will only “introduce error and fraud” into the automated election system.

MANILA, Philippines–For every 4 voters that will go to the polls in May, 1 intends to watch the counting of votes, according to a special survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

WASHINGTON – Filipino politicians have one of the worst records in Southeast Asia for stiffing the poor, coddling the rich and indulging themselves, The Washington Post said.

SIGE NA NGA: The Commission on Elections insists that it is ready to conduct credible national elections two short weeks from now. Having grown tired, I am tempted to throw up my hands and say, “Sige na nga, ready and able na po kayo!” Yes, let us leave the Comelec alone so it can concentrate…

MANILA, Philippines – A total of 27 people, including a mayoralty bet and five running for councilor, were killed in 75 election-related violent incidents during the first 105 days of the campaign period for the May 10 general elections.

Former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban on Tuesday said that it would be difficult to adopt a recommendation of Information Technology (IT) professionals and the business community to manually count the ballots to be cast through automated machines on May 10 since there are no rules covering the proposal.

MANILA, Philippines—Elections Commissioner Armando Velasco urges Filipinos abroad to vote for the May 10 polls, either by mail, in person or using the pilot automated polls in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Filipinos are preparing for a historic election in which they will vote using automated machines for the first time, but there are rising fears the experiment could fail and trigger deep political chaos.

MANILA, Philippines – Information technology (IT) experts are worried about possible cheating in the May 10 automated elections and are appealing to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to consider their proposal for a parallel manual count to ensure the credibility of poll results.

How can the Comelec properly automate — when rackets distract it? Since 2008 at least 18 big-ticket expenditures have brought the poll body shame:

MANILA, Philippines—With just a month to go, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced Sunday it was 90 percent ready to conduct the country’s first nationwide automated balloting on May 10.

More than 500,000 Filipinos overseas are expected to troop to Philippine polling stations abroad for the national elections beginning April 10 to May 10.

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.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang welcomed yesterday the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that most Filipinos have confidence in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the prevention of the sabotage of the automated elections.

COTABATO CITY—Some 40,000 voters have been removed from the Maguindanao voter’s list for failure to validate their records through the biometrics system or due to their failure to vote during the two previous elections, officials said yesterday.

Member of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) warned on Sunday that they would not perform poll duties in the May 10 elections if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) failed to address their most urgent concern—their right to vote.

MANILA, Philippines – She has poor eyesight and difficulty reading, but 80-year-old Rosalinda Meneses made sure she was able to fill up her ballot completely.

MANILA, Philippines – Public school teachers will get free legal assistance from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) if they face lawsuits while on poll duty on May 10.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was asked yesterday to investigate six party-list groups for alleged links to President Arroyo.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) confirmed yesterday the existence of 700,000 double registrants nationwide.

MASSIVE DISENFRANCHISEMENT PLUS ZOMBIE VOTERS EQUALS POLL FAILURE Zombie voters, or double registrants, estimated at three to five million people may be the least of the problems in the May 10 elections if computations of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) on the electoral process on the voting day itself prove true as the estimate…

MANILA, Philippines – Liberal Party (LP) bet Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has widened his lead over Sen. Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party (NP) in the latest survey by Pulse Asia on presidential candidates for the May 10 elections.