Comelec must explain server discrepancies or junk Smartmatic system

The 2016 national elections may be over but the controversies surrounding the recent automated polls are not. If these are not resolved and explained by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) headed by Chairman Andres Bautista before the 2019 mid-term elections, then the Smartmatic election system should be permanently junked and replaced with a fool-proof, transparent and easily verifiable technology from other automated election system providers. That or go back to manual elections.

Comelec cannot sweep these controversies under the rug hoping that it will somehow die down or go away. The many server and canvassing issues during the last elections should not become a mere footnote during the Duterte presidency because the integrity of the country’s voting process is at stake.