In the Automated Election System, the voters — some 47 million Filipinos — will simply shade ovals corresponding to the names of the candidates they vote for. As such, the ballot would list all the names of the candidates. The ballot (now reportedly more than two feet long) will then be fed into machines for counting. The results would be transmitted from the precinct to the next canvassing level, until the winning candidates from the local up to district, provincial and national levels are known.
The transmission from clustered precincts to national level will take only two and half minutes, “and in that time they can do a lot of miracles,” commented Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz. “This administration (Arroyo’s) is known for everything except integrity,” he added.
Missing Integrity
In the automated elections, the counting and tallying of the votes would be done electronically. It is therefore not as public as in the manual mode. If the AES were being prepared adequately, with sufficient safeguards and integrity of those managing it, AES may indeed deliver fast results and clean elections, said Pascual.
The problem is that Filipino voters could not rest assured they would be able to vote properly and that their votes would be truly counted. There is a glaring lack of integrity of many components of the AES, Archbishop Cruz noted in their priestly “circles of discernment.” These components include the Comelec officials themselves, the voters list, the ballots and the election machines.
Archbishop Cruz expressed dismay that allegedly corrupt Comelec officials such as Lintang Bedol are at large. The Comelec itself has admitted that, in Pasig for instance, at least 300 voters are, incredibly, 99 years old, and there are numerous problems in the delivery and testing of the machines, among other things.
The Comelec has been following an adjusted timeline based on the delivery of the machines. It does say that all machines will be in by February 21. So far, they have tested only 72 of the total 82,800 machines that are supposed to be used in the May 2010 elections.
“Comelec officials said it would need some 300 technicians working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to be able to test all the machines in less than two months, or within 45 days. However, Comelec also admitted before the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee hearing last week that it has yet to hire all 300 technicians,” Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. said in a statement.
“The Comelec may not have enough time and manpower to test the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines,” observed Bayan. And it would have been better, too, “if Comelec also tests the batteries that will go along with the machines. It’s enough to say that the machines have a 12-hour battery life and that there will be 1,725 generators available in the event of a power failure. We have yet to hear of any actual tests of machines running solely on batteries,” Reyes added.
Voters’ Education and Pressure on the Comelec
The electoral watchdog, Pagbabago! Movement for Change, is holding dialogues with the Comelec as well as voters’ education in communities and schools since early last month. More groups are also following suit.
“Our aim is to reach the broad number of people who understand, even in its basic terms, the new system of automated polls. We want to encourage the voters to participate in the upcoming polls in the context of our yearning for change,” said Sr. Diane Cabasagan, a convenor of Pagbabago!
Teachers have also been urging the Comelec to give them basic orientation on AES. “As Board of Election Inspectors, we teachers are also responsible for the guarding of the sacred ballots. One of our paramount concerns is for the teachers to fully carry out their duty on guarding the ballots which this government has already failed to ensure,” said Paluga, of ACT Teacher’s Party.
With the big possibility of a failure of elections that would in turn be favorable to the ambitions of President Arroyo to stay in power beyond 2010, Franchie Buhayan, Anakpawis Partylist Davao City spokesperson, said in a statement that Anakpawis will ready its ranks and people-led poll watch machinery to make sure the Filipino people will have their votes counted and that the peoples’ choice of leaders will take the seats they deserve. (Bulatlat.com)
