Saturday, October 21, 2006
Poll body to transmit 2007 polls results electronically
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Friday the May 2007 elections may be partially automated.
"There is no quarrel that we could automate the election system. We have all agreed that we could easily implement the transmission and consolidation aspects," said Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr.
Abalos said electronic transmission will "eliminate mass fraud and mass cheating because it is in the transmission of election results where there has been hijacking, substitution of election results, switching and dagdag-bawas (vote padding/shaving)".
He said Comelec would need P100 million to implement the electronic transmission of the election results as it would only be pilot-tested in four places. The pilot areas are the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), the National Capital Region (NCR), Cebu and Batanes.
Abalos, a member of the Comelec National Advisory Council, appointed Peter Aurelio Banzon, chief of the science and research division of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) as in-charge of the committee that would invite all interested parties to determine the proper technology, to include the voting and counting aspects of the automation process.
"This is not a bidding yet. We are not calling on them not to bid but to show their wares and what the can offer. And then we will look at what they're offering and if they're capable of providing, on helping us put together the complete solution that the Comelec can implement in 2007, we will talk to them and screen them," said Tony Tinsay, vice president of the Philippine Computer Society.
The advisory committee said even the controversial Mega Pacific Consortium (MPC) is not prevented from participating in the process.
Edmundo Casino of the Philippine Computer Society, a member of the advisory committee, said the automated election system bills passed by Congress only specifies "appropriate technology", which means that vendors may provide exactly the same unit provided by Mega Pacific.
"They can provide the same machines just to comply with the provisions of the law while the controversial automated counting machines (ACMs) remain in the sidelines because of the Supreme Court prohibition," Casino said.
Nelson Celis, one of the consultants of the Comelec and a member of the advisory committee also shared Casino's view that it would cheaper to use the ACMs in the pilot test.
Celis said compared to the touch screen machine being used in the US, the ACMs are more secure and could not be easily tampered with because of the VeriSign embedded in the equipment. (MSN/Sunnex)
(October 21, 2006 issue)
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