MANILA, Philippines – The chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) appealed to critics to give poll automation a chance and, thus, wean the country away from the outmoded and antiquated manual system of voting for leaders in the 2010 elections.
Retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo, the Comelec chief, aired the appeal following criticisms from certain quarters over the agency’s decision to use the Precinct Counting Optical Scan (PCOS) system to computerize the 2010 elections.
Melo said the PCOS is an improved version of the optical mark reader system which was used in the country’s first ever automated elections held at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2008.
The PCOS requires voters to indicate their choices by shading an oval space beside the names of the candidates. The ballots are then counted by the machines and, as such, will leave a paper trail in the form of a hard copy of the ballot, according to experts.
The Comelec chief said he hoped the advocates of other poll technology systems would not throw legal hurdles in the Comelec’s way so it could accomplish its mission of automating next year’s elections in which voters are to elect the successor of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose term ends in 2010 as mandated by the Constitution.
Aside from President Arroyo, the voters are to elect also the next vice president as well as senators, congressmen, provincial governors and local government officials such as mayor, vice mayor and councilor.
Meto expressed fears critics would find flaws in the bidding process and again “kill” the plan to automate the elections.
“That is what we fear,” he pointed out. “They may derail the system. They may delay the process.”
Melo also emphasized that the plan to use the PCOS was studied and recommended by the Comelec advisory council, composed of information technology experts, to computerize the 2010 polls.
In 2004, the Comelec failed to automate the elections after the Supreme Court annulled the awarding of the contract for poll machines to a consortium of local and foreign companies due to allegations of graft and flawed bidding procedures.
Melo also revealed that Congress members threatened to impeach him and the other Comelec commissioners if they failed to automate the 2010 elections after the lawmakers had approved the equivalent of $200 million as supplemental budget for the project.
In a related development, Senator Richard Gordon asked his colleagues to act on a bill seeking to allow “early or advanced” voting so more Filipinos, particularly those in far-flung areas, could participate in next year’s polls.
Gordon stressed the Comelec should also seriously consider such voting in certain areas like the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which has been considered a “high security risk area.”
Early or advanced voting refers to any system where voters can cast their ballot either by mail or in person ahead of the official Election Day, Gordon explained.
He noted this system is a fast-growing trend in more 30 states in the US, especially in the November 2008 polls which saw the election of Barack Obama as America’s first-ever black president.
Under the bill, sponsored by Gordon, voters will be allowed to cast their ballots on a single day or series of days prior to an election day and thus help increase the number of qualified Filipinos to participate in the electoral exercise.
Moreover, Gordon said expanding the voting to more than one day would also reduce the risk of overworked election workers making mistakes.
This would also prove helpful in reducing the risk of broken and damaged automated election machines which are to be used in the 2010 polls, Gordon stressed.
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