Palace confident of successful automated polls in May

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be able to pull off a successful automated election on May 13 despite its decision not to have a follow-up on the dry run held early this month, a Palace official said Sunday.

Glitches marred the February 2 mock poll especially at the University of the Philippines Integrated School in Quezon City, where a precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine had to be replaced because it rejected four successive ballots.

"Well, at this point, we expect the Comelec to be able to carry out their mandate for a safe and peaceful election in May and we leave it up to them how best to carry out that mandate," deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in an interview over Radyo ng Bayan.

She said Malacañang and the public have high expectations that the Comelec will be doing its best to ensure honest, clean, and peaceful national and local midterm elections.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. had ruled out a return to manual voting after the report of the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) last week validated the mock polls conducted in 20 voting centers in 10 areas across the country.

The TEC is composed of the Comelec, Department of Science and Technology and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, currently known as the Information and Communications Technology Office under the DOST. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)