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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
Senators gave conflicting assessments about the full automation of
the 2010 elections after a briefing Tuesday before the committee on
electoral reforms by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the
project’s winning bidder.
The poll body’s chairman, Jose Melo, and
executives of Smartmatic consortium led the briefing.
Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, also committee
chairman, said the Comelec failed to convince him during the
hearing that it could really automate the elections, “because they
don’t have a plan as of yet and the details are to follow.”
“Maybe, we will have to wait for the full
details before we could be convinced,” he added.
Chairman Ray Anthony Roxas Chua of the Advisory
Council for Automated Elections System explained that they did not
require Smartmatic and other bidders to give a detailed plan on the
distribution of machines because this entailed a lot of legwork.
“Now that the bid had been awarded to
Smartmatic, Smartmatic will make the detailed plan,” Chua said.
Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino also
said that Smartmatic could only give estimates of the clustering of
precincts and their locations for now. “Final clustering will be
made only after the registration of voters. After October 30,
we’ll know how many voters will there be per clustered
precinct.”
Critical of Comelec
Like Escudero, Sen. Richard Gordon criticized
Comelec for giving too much faith in and leeway to Smartmatic in the
logistical plans, or on how to test and deliver the machines to the
80,046 clustered precincts. Smartmatic ordered 82,200 machines, with
the spare machines to be used in case some machines malfunction.
“The Comelec is too cavalier, too lax in
accepting the word of its supplier,” Gordon said.
The two senators questioned the choice of hubs
for the machines, saying the centers should be reviewed as they were
warned of difficulty in transporting the machines to the precincts
with their present choices.
The lawmakers noted that the hubs were picked
not by Comelec but by ToGo, a corporation that still has to sign a
contract with Smarmatic for logistical plans and implementation.
Gordon said the Comelec should have a tracking
system for the machines and ballots to assure the people that they
would not fall in the wrong hands.
“We have to assure the people that the
machines, which have already been tested, will be delivered to a
certain polling place at a particular time,” he added.
He expressed concern about the plan of Comelec
to use a machine from another precinct if the machine in one
precinct failed. Gordon warned that the people would suspect the
election results if a different machine was used in a precinct.
JPE pleased
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, for his
part, believed that Comelec was doing its job well. “We asked them
hard questions, and they were able to answer them. Only, their
clustering and their logistical hubs will have to be reviewed.”
He added that Smartmatic was competent enough to
undertake the automation because it had already participated in
several elections, including in 21 states in the United States of
America.
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