Politicians To Sabotage 2010 Automated Polls?

Some unscrupulous politicians are planning to sabotage next year’s automated elections, a senator bared on Wednesday.

Senator Richard Gordon however could not substantiate his claims, saying only that he’d been receiving reports that some congressmen are planning to stop the implementation of the automated elections. 




“There are some people who are desperate. Natatakot sila na mahina yung kanilang kandidato (They are afraid that their bets would lose)," he said even as he expressed doubts that these politicians would succeed.

“Hindi ko ipaglalaban yan passionately kung hindi ko nakikita na magwo-work yan (I would not have fought for it passionately if I did not see that it will work)," said the author of the Republic Act 9369 or the Amended Automated Elections System Law.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec), on the other hand, dismissed the possibility of sabotage.

“Just trust the Comelec that we would ensure clean, honest and orderly elections in 2010," said Commissioner Ferdinand Rafanan in an earlier interview.

The poll body even said the the machines that will be used in the 2010 elections can even run without electricity.

“The machines can work on batteries for a total of sixteenhours, so even with a brownout, the machines will still work," Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.

The National Power Corporation (Napocor) said that it would require six billion pesos to ensure sufficient power supply on election day.

Renato Garcia, IT consultant of Comelec chairman Jose Melo, told reporters that the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines work like portable computers, which can run on backup power.

“Since these are practically laptops, backup power is not really a problem and consumption of energy is very low," he said.

A total of 42, 200 PCOS machines will arrive in December while another 40,000 will be delivered in January. - GMANews.TV

Supreme Court Okays Poll Automation in 2010 Elections

The Supreme Court of the Philippines will promulgate Thursday, September 10, 2009, its decision regarding the petition by a UP law professor seeking to invalidate the contract signed between COMELEC and Smartmatic/TIM to automate the 2010 national and local elections.  This was the report gathered by abs-cbnNEWS/Newsbreak.  The news item reads in full, thus:

MANILA -- It's full steam ahead to automate next year’s elections.

Voting 11-3-1, the Supreme Court junked the petition filed by University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque to declare as invalid the P7.2 billion automation contract between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and winning consortium Smartmatic and Total Information Management (TIM), according to early reports reaching abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.

The ruling, penned by Justice Presbitero Velasco, is expected to be promulgated this week. Justices Antonio Carpio, Conchita Carpio-Morales, and Arturo Brion dissented. Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, who is on leave, took no part.

The ruling paves the way for Comelec to go full throttle in the preparations and implementation of poll automation.

Earlier, fears were raised that the SC case, if further prolonged, could push back the poll body’s timetable, which could have dire consequences on the country’s first-ever nationwide computerized elections.

Roque had sought the junking of the automation contract, arguing that the automation law provides that the system should be first pilot-tested in selected areas.

Representing the Concerned Citizens Movement, Roque said the Comelec did not the follow this provision in the law.

Republic Act (RA) 9369, or the amended Automation Law, required that pilot-testing be held in highly-urbanized areas and two provinces each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in the national and local elections that would be held shortly after the measure’s adoption.

The law was passed January 23, 2007.

The Comelec and the Office of the Solicitor-General argued that the law was referring to the May 2007 mid-term senatorial race. But since automation was not implemented at that time, this provision of the law has been deemed waived.

The Roque petition is just one of a series of dramatic incidents that have plagued poll automation.

The winning consortium almost broke up after bagging the contract due to “irreconcilable differences.”

Legal threats issued by Comelec prompted TIM, the Filipino partner in the consortium, to go back to the negotiating table.

The foreign partner itself, Smartmatic, is bugged by negative publicities and controversies.