Poll body assures no election cheating

COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Provincial Supervisor Jessie Suarez assured that there will be no cheating during the May 10 polls with the use of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

Suarez said the security feature of the PCOS is more than enough to secure the votes of the people during the elections. He said the machines are very hard to be penetrated by hackers.

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The assurance was made by Suarez as questions about the efficiency of the PCOS are being doubted.

Meanwhile, Suarez said the election board of canvassers will be convened at 12 noon during the May 10 polls. He said they expect the proclamation of the winning candidates to happen earlier than the manual process.

The voting starts at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m.

Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, will have 2,050 precincts with one PCOS machine for each precinct. Standby PCOS will also be available as part of the contingency measure, Suarez said.

Smartmatic assured that it will provide 2,000 PCOS machines to replace voting machines that will break down during the country's first automated elections.

The Smartmatic-TIM consortium is the winning bidder for the P11.2-billion automation project for the May elections. (TED)