MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) challenged hackers to try to crack the voting and counting machines that will be used in the May 2010 elections to prove that the system is secure from fraud and tampering.
Jose Tolentino, the Comelec executive director, issued the challenge following criticisms from politicians, poll watchdogs and some information technology experts who fear that the agency’s adoption of the system would only give rise to a new and more sophisticated mode of election cheating.
Earlier, the Comelec announced it was adopting the Precinct Counting Optical System Scan (PCOS) system which, it said, is an improved version of the computer machines used in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) polls in 2008.
The Comelec described as a success the ARMM polls, the country’s first-ever attempt for automated elections in order to wean the Philippines away from the ancient and outmoded process of manual voting and counting of ballots which have given rise to charges of election cheating and similar anomalies in the past.
In fact, this has given rise to the joke after every election time that there are only winners and no losers because the candidates who failed to make it always claimed that they were cheated.
In the case of the PCOS, Tolentino said the Comelec is very confident the security features of the system would be able to thwart hackers.
“Even in the first level, we can already detect any attempt of tampering,” said Tolentino, who is also the Comelec’s poll automation project manager. “By the time the hacker gets into our system, the elections are already over.”
Tolentino extended the challenge to to cyber-security experts who want to check the system for its weaknesses as well as those who might try to hack the system without informing the Comelec.
To check the accuracy of the PCOS machines, Tolentino said the Comelec is to hold a mock election among political parties and other interested sectors three days before the May 10, 2010 elections.
He said the participants would be allowed to fill up sets of ballots and then feed them into the counting machines.
“After that, we will know if the machines are accurate,” Tolentino said. “The parties will then sign a document to certify to the accuracy of the machines.”
On March 18, the Comelec started the process to determine who among the bidders are to win the contract for the lease of the machines worth the equivalent of more than $200 million as approved by Congress.
Retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo, the Comelec chairman, has announced that 10 companies had expressed interest in joining the bidding for the contract.
Melo assured critics that since these companies all have international operations to protect, they would not allow their products to be used for fraud in the 2010 polls.
At the same time, Melo urged first-voters to register as he pointed out that there are now 44.2 million registered voters.
But the Comelec, he said, is eyeing some nine million new voters, mainly the youth who are 18 years old and above.
Melo also said they expect a bigger turnout of registrants and voters for next year’s elections because they are to choose the successors of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro whose terms expire in 2009 as mandated by the Constitution.
Also to be elected are 12 senators as well as congressmen and provincial and local officials like governors, city and municipal mayors, vice mayors and councilors.
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