Final test moved

THE final testing and sealing of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that will be used for the country’s first synchronized automated election has been moved tomorrow instead of today.

In other developments:

* The Supreme Court (SC) is expected to decide today how the counting of votes will be done on Monday.

* Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has asked Catholics to pray the rosary in polling precincts as election officers start to test and seal PCOS machines.

* Special elections will be held in areas that won’t get their PCOS machines in time for the election, said Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano.

Cebu City North District Election Officer Rudy Gilos said the testing and sealing have been moved because the new reconfigured compact flash (CF) cards have yet to be delivered today.

Gilos, however, stressed that the delay in the sealing and testing of the PCOS machines will not postpone Monday’s elections. Postponement will need legislation, he said.

Despite the malfunction of certain machines in Luzon during last Monday’s testing, Gilos remains optimistic that there will be no more glitches tomorrow.

“Di nako motuo nga ang Smartmatic-TIM masayop pa na sila. Kung masayop pa sila, hiktananan na gyud na ilang li-og (I don’t think Smartmatic-TIM will commit any

more mistakes. If they do, they should be hanged),” Gilos said in jest.

Smartmatic-TIM is the supplier of the automated counting machines.

Even if there are still glitches, Gilos said Comelec will still have time to replace the cards. He said that both the PCOS machines and CF cards have backups.

Gilos, however, warned that if there will be failure of elections on Monday because of the machines, Comelec will file a case against Smartmatic-TIM.

Today, the SC will sit in a special session to decide how the counting of votes will be done on Monday.

Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said the SC is “pressed” to come up with a resolution although the matter was only brought to their attention last Wednesday.

Marquez was in Cebu with other ranking SC officials yesterday to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the future site of the Court of Appeals (CA) Cebu Station.

The SC is on recess, having adjourned its session last Tuesday. There is supposed to be no more sessions until the end of June, when Chief Justice Reynato Puno is retired and his replacement has taken over.

The special session will tackle the 18-page petition of the Concerned Citizens Movement of lawyer Harry Roque Jr.

The petition asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to count votes manually.

CCM is the same group that asked the SC to nullify the P7.2-billion poll automation deal between the Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM.

The SC, in a ruling promulgated last September, however blasted the petition, citing the need to observe the Comelec’s autonomy in the “discharge of its awesome functions.”

In the same ruling, however, the SC acknowledged that things could still go wrong.

“Like anyone else, the Court would like and wish automated elections to succeed, credibly,” it said.

But Roque and CCM argued in the petition that it is time for the SC to step in.

“To continue with a system whose reliability and credibility have been put in grave doubt is to violate with impunity the sacred constitutional right of the Filipino people to the ballot,” the petition said.

The petition was filed after the counting machines failed in Comelec tests just days before the election.

Smartmatic-TIM executives blamed the glitch on errors in the configuration contained in the compact flash cards they are using to run the system.

Prayers

Meanwhile, Vidal has issued a circular asking parish priests, religious and the laity to hold prayer vigils near polling precincts when Comelec resumes testing and sealing the PCOS machines.

Vidal asked parishes to form prayer groups of three to five persons to go on hourly shifts and pray the rosary in precincts.

He asked parishes to coordinate with their election officers on the arrival of the PCOS machines.

The prelate said that instead of conducting vigils in their churches, parishioners are better off in the precincts to help safeguard the machines.

At the Comelec provincial office, Castillano said that if in case PCOS machines can’t be delivered on May 10 to some areas in the province, a special election will be held in these areas.

Castillano said the challenge is now on the deployment of PCOS machines after these were recalled. He said manual election is already out of the question because Comelec did not prepare for it.

“The election will push through on May 10 but on certain areas where we can’t immediately deploy the memory cad, we may conduct a special election,” he told reporters.

The number of days on the conduct of the special elections will depend on the Comelec en banc, he said.

If the compact flash cards will arrive on May 8, Air 21 intends to deliver it within the day to the respective election officers of all towns, including the islands. It also means to that the testing and sealing of the PCOS will be done on May 9.

The testing and sealing will be done simultaneously and each precinct will have ten sample ballots to test. This is also open to the public. (PDF/KNR/JKV/RSA/Katreena Mercado Bisnar, Mass Com intern)

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