PRESIDENTIAL candidate Senator Grace Poe and her running mate Senator Francis Escudero have expressed alarm over negative results of the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) initial testing of the vote counting machines (VCMs).
Poe and Escudero are running for president and vice president, respectively.
Recently, a representative from international certifies SLI Global Solutions said one or two percent of ballots were rejected by VCMs during a ballot verification testing held at the poll body's storage facility in Laguna earlier this week.
To address concerns over glitches in the VCM system, the tandem said the Comelec should hold a dialog with stakeholders to discuss the status of the preparations for May 9 polls.
In a February 11 letter addressed to Comelec en banc, the tandem's lawyer George Garcia said the dialog would address such problem, and other poll-related issues that may hurt the credibility of the electoral exercise.
"Unfortunately, the result of such testing are hounded by undesirable feedbacks such as but not limited to, failure of the VCMs to count the votes, and the fact that the report of SLI Global Solutions, which was tasked to conduct the required review and certification, the source code is unavailable for inspection," Garcia said.
"The foregoing appeal is interposed purposely to dispel said negative reports and to affirm that the Comelec is doing its best to ensure that the forthcoming election will be free from technological glitches and other similar irregularities," he added.
Garcia said he hoped his request would be immediately granted, considering it was in line with the "clean, honest, and orderly election campaign of the Comelec."
Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian, Poe's spokesman, said the reported problems in the VCMs made them cautious, while reserving their judgment on the matter.
"It's a reason for us to be wary of or to put reservations," Garcia said. "I think that's unfair to our democracy. That's unfair to all candidates and unfair to the electorate in those areas because their votes will not be counted."
Garcia further said he was alarmed that barely three months before the elections, the poll body's Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) has yet to issue a certification or report required under the Election Modernization Act of 1997.
Under Section 11 of the law, Garcia said the TEC should have successfully conducted a field testing process; completed audit on the accuracy, functionality and security controls of the automated election system software, and completed a source code review, among others, "not later than three months before the date of the electoral exercise."
"With all due respect, the undersigned cannot overemphasize the importance of the strict compliance with the provisions of Republic Act 9639 taking into account that the success of the 2015 automated election truly depends on it," he said.
Gatchalian also cited reports that six officials of the National Printing Office, who were previously dismissed from service by the Office of the Ombudsman, still reported for work and were even assigned to handle the printing of election ballots for the May elections.
Poe's camp also expressed apprehension on the alleged postponement of election in some areas because of possible delays in the printing of ballots.
"All these things are somehow adding up and causing some alarm already to the different parties," Gatchalian said.
"We are calling on the Comelec to be more vigilant, get their acts together. We are watching. The moment they start inviting political parties and those of the candidates to observe closely, we will see to it that we will look into these reports," he add. (Sunnex)