Manila - For as long as Filipinos can remember, votes in
their elections have been counted by hand in a tedious process that
takes several weeks to complete, making it prone to fraud and
mistakes.
Teachers, who are designated by law to be elections officers,
tally votes on blackboards in sweltering classrooms swamped with
voters and representatives of warring politicians.
The count often goes on until the wee hours of the morning or the
following day. In some places where there is no electricity, candles
are used during the vigil as heavily armed soldiers stand guard
against violence, which usually erupts among rivals.
In 2010, Filipinos are hoping they would finally be able to say
goodbye to those days when they have to wait for more than one month
before knowing who won their elections.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) recently awarded a
150-million-dollar contract to a Barbados-based firm and its
Philippine partners to implement a long-delayed plan to automate the
country's elections starting on May 10, 2010, when Filipinos are to
elect a successor to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Under the contract, the consortium, led by Smartmatic
International Corp, would provide 82,000 ballot-scanning machines
across the Philippines to speed up the elections.
Cezar Flores, a spokesman for Smartmatic, said winners in national
contests would be known in as soon as two days.
Flores added that more than 90 per cent of election results would
be in within the first six hours after precincts are closed. He also
said the count would have '100-per-cent accuracy.'
Each machine would have passwords, data encryption as well as
memory and power backups. It would reject fraudulent or tainted
ballots to avoid previous experiences in which ballots were tampered
or fake ballots were added in precincts to help boost a candidate's
standing.
'Every machine has its own personality,' Flores said. 'If the
machine is only for a precinct with 800 registered voters, it cannot
read more than 800 ballots.'
He said the machines have been used in elections in the United
States, Canada and Britain.
Despite the assurances, some politicians and analysts said they
were not 100-per-cent confident that the automation of the 2010 polls
would proceed smoothly, especially since it would be the first time
for the system to be used in the Philippines.
Political commentator and economist Winnie Monsod said it was not
yet time for Filipinos to sit back and relax despite the awarding of
the contract.
'The public has to be ever more vigilant to make sure that we
don't find ourselves facing total chaos on election day and - the
worst scenario of all - a failure of elections,' Monsod warned.
'It should not be assumed that just because there is automation,
there could be no cheating,' she added. 'Given new technologies, it
is possible that cheating can occur on an even more massive scale.'
Some lawmakers have also expressed concern over the tenuous
relationship between Smartmatic and its local partner, Total
Information Management Corp, after a squabble that almost broke up
the partnership.
It was just weeks after the contract was awarded when Total
Information announced it was out of the project, throwing the
automation plan into a quandary and forcing Comelec officials to
scramble for a plan B.
Plan B was forcing the two companies to sit down and talk over
their differences and threatening the executives with legal action if
the project did not go through.
While the partnership is back on track, Senator Edgardo Angara and
a number of other legislators demanded an explanation on what the two
partners had fought about and how they had settled their differences.
There were also allegations that Total Information's owners have
close ties with Arroyo and her camp, who have been accused of massive
cheating in the 2004 presidential elections.
'Transparency is what this country needs, and an automated
election is the way to ensure our citizens that their votes will be
protected and will be counted in appointing the next leaders of the
country,' Angara said.
Jose Mari Antunez, president of Total Management, denied having
any links to Arroyo, her husband or any of her officials during a
Senate inquiry into the deal.
Comelec Chairman Jose Melo allayed fears that the poll automation
would fail and the 2010 elections would be postponed.
'The way I look at it, with 82,000 units, not all 82,000 will
fail,' he said. 'The law of probability is at work here. You don't
expect all 82,000 machines to fail, probably less than 100.'
He added that the contract requires Smartmatic to provide back-up
machines in case of breakdowns.
'Election failure will not be because of machines; it will be
because of men,' he said.
Elections in the Philippines have traditionally been marred by
violence and allegations of massive cheating. In the country's last
national elections in 2007, more than 140 people were killed in
poll-related violence.
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