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Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Comelec holds mock polls using VSAT
By Harley Palangchao and Marie Neri
BAGUIO -- Mock elections were held in three cities Tuesday to test the Commission on Elections (Comelec) "fraud-free" electronic transmission machines or the Very Small Aperture System Terminal (VSAT) satellite.
The dry run was reportedly successful in mock elections held in Baguio City, Lipa City in Batangas and in Bacolod City using the VSAT satellites. The count was transmitted via satellite to the National Consolidation Center in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.
In the dry run held in Baguio, no problem was encountered in sending tabulation results to the central office, lawyer Julius Torres, election supervisor for Baguio and Benguet said.
The simultaneous mock elections were held for the Comelec central office to determine if the VSAT system is functioning properly in preparation for the May 10 elections.
Torres said it was successful because the Comelec central office received the result of the tabulation two minutes after the data was sent via the Vsat.
"The system is working and we hope to perfect it through another round of drills after the Holy Week," Torres said.
In the mock elections, Comelec-CAR simulated voting in two precincts and assigned 21 voters in precinct A and 16 voters in precinct B.
The legal procedure -- from the casting of votes, tallying to the transferring of ballot boxes -- were properly observed, which also served as a short course refresher for Comelec personnel.
Lawyer Armando Velasco, Comelec-CAR director, expressed confidence that the system will not experience any trouble during the actual sending of tabulation results on May 10 and onwards.
Velasco said Cordillera is lucky to be one of the few regions issued a Vsat by the Comelec central office.
Phase 3 of the Comelec Modernization Program uses satellite-based technology in the transmission of votes from local counting centers in different polling centers nationwide to the national counting center in Manila through a secure and encrypted feed.
The Comelec deployed a VSAT for each of the 1,612 cities and municipalities nationwide.
Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. witnessed the dry run together with commissioners Virgilio Garcillano, Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuazon while the volunteers from the Parish Pastoral
Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) monitored the mock elections in six precincts located in the three different areas.
The mock elections started at 9 a.m. and lasted for an hour. Manual counting of the "votes" proceeded and the results were received between 12 noon and 1:47 p.m., which were transmitted using the VSAT.
The electronically transmitted results were compared to the faxed returns for comparison.
Renato Lim, VSAT program manager, said he expects a compilation and dissemination of the election results 36 hours after the end of the counting.
(April 7, 2004 issue)
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