By Kristine L. Alave, Leila B. Salaverria, Amy R. Remo (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100430-267246/Comelec-junks-parallel-manual-count-bid
MANILA, Philippines—A slide into chaos rather than a prescription for order.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Thursday junked a proposal by concerned business and legal groups to conduct a parallel manual count, at the very least in the presidential contest, to establish the credibility of the automated balloting on May 10.
In a strongly worded resolution, the Comelec en banc slammed proponents of the hybrid polling for “their lack of understanding of the ramifications of their demand” and said the proposal was “very risky.”
“Conducting a hand count of the ballots will open up the possibility of errors in tallying, as well as provide excellent opportunity for the perpetration of fraudulent acts, such as the deliberate shading of additional ovals or the defacing of the ballot security marks—to make it appear that more ballots were read than should have been,” it said.
The proposal, the seven-page resolution said, is aimed not so much at testing the integrity of the computerized system, but at producing discrepancies between the hand tally and the electronic returns that could lea to the scrapping of the automated polls.
It said the proposal “would open the floodgates to dagdag-bawas (vote-padding and vote-shaving), thereby casting much graver doubt on the credibility of the election results than mere automation could.”
Comelec liable for fraud
The Comelec decision was roundly denounced by groups that had expressed apprehension that the poll body had removed measures to ensure the integrity of the vote, including scrapping of the ultraviolet security marks on ballots, the source code review and digital signatures.
“If there is failure of elections or widespread fraud, I’m accusing them, the Comelec commissioners, of being active participants, of being complicit, in a conspiracy to commit these acts,” said former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo of the Philippine Bar Association.
There is now no way to determine if the counting machines are 99.9995 percent accurate, he said.
Marcelo disputed the Comelec’s assertion that the hand count would provide opportunities for vote-shaving and -padding. He said that such acts usually took place not at the precincts, but at the canvassing level in the municipalities. It is also open to the public, he said, so there is virtually no chance of shenanigans taking place without being discovered.
“The country cannot afford an election that is done with speed but without accuracy. We believe a 100-percent manual audit of the position of president will make the 2010 election credible,” the Makati Business Club (MBC) said in a statement.
Election may not be accepted
The MBC said that because the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used in the country’s first nationwide automated balloting had “not been pilot-tested in an actual election as mandated by law, the risk of the machines making mistakes at a rate higher than that provided for (1 mistake ut of 20,000) is quite high.”
“We are gravely concerned that without such a verification of the accuracy of these machines, the election may not be accepted by the people as the true reflection of their will,” it added.
In its decision, the Comelec said it did not scrap the petition because of concerns over cost and logistics but on legal implications of the manual count in the age of electronic balloting.
“In theory, at least, this could even result in enough delay to prevent a proclamation of the President-elect before the 30th of June 2010,” it said.
Random manual audit
The Comelec said that the manual count was not the only way to verify the integrity of the electronic results. It said the random manual audit mandated by law would validate results.
Under the audit scheme, five ballot boxes per district will be chosen randomly for inspection. Auditors would count the votes cast in the PCOS machines and compare these with electronic election returns (ER).
The Comelec was likely to release the rules and guidelines for the random manual audit this week, said spokesperson James Jimenez.
The MBC said that as early as March last year, it had expressed concerns about the limited time left to implement the automated election system.
“But when the national leadership decided to push ahead with full automation, we embraced the project and cooperated with the Comelec in making its implementation successful. However, there were several slippage along the way, which only confirmed our worst fears that the risk of failure of automation was going to be high,” it said.
Proposal made in November
In November 2009, the recommendation for a manual count at least in the contests for president, vice president and mayors was made to Comelec officials in various fora with the business and legal communities, the MBC said, dismissing the poll body’s claims that it was done posthaste.
“The proposals were not formalized so as not to discourage the Comelec, which continued to assert there was enough time to deliver the system as specified. But they missed even their own new deadlines resulting in compromises made, including the disabling of several security features,” it added.
“Our proposal of a manual count was deliberately confined to only three positions in order to keep the process simple and doable, given the limited time left before the election. After all, the purpose of the manual count is to verify that the PCOS machines count correctly, which is the interest of the Comelec as well as of the whole country,” MBC said.
Even just presidential bets
According to MBC, if the Comelec’s objection is the time it takes to count three positions, then they could hand tally just the presidential race. It said this would take less than one hour.
“Ultimately it is the vigilance of the Filipino people that will best protect the integrity of the elections. We call for highly intensified and sustained vigilance on May 10,” the group added.
Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100430-267246/Comelec-junks-parallel-manual-count-bid
MANILA, Philippines—A slide into chaos rather than a prescription for order.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Thursday junked a proposal by concerned business and legal groups to conduct a parallel manual count, at the very least in the presidential contest, to establish the credibility of the automated balloting on May 10.
In a strongly worded resolution, the Comelec en banc slammed proponents of the hybrid polling for “their lack of understanding of the ramifications of their demand” and said the proposal was “very risky.”
“Conducting a hand count of the ballots will open up the possibility of errors in tallying, as well as provide excellent opportunity for the perpetration of fraudulent acts, such as the deliberate shading of additional ovals or the defacing of the ballot security marks—to make it appear that more ballots were read than should have been,” it said.
The proposal, the seven-page resolution said, is aimed not so much at testing the integrity of the computerized system, but at producing discrepancies between the hand tally and the electronic returns that could lea to the scrapping of the automated polls.
It said the proposal “would open the floodgates to dagdag-bawas (vote-padding and vote-shaving), thereby casting much graver doubt on the credibility of the election results than mere automation could.”
Comelec liable for fraud
The Comelec decision was roundly denounced by groups that had expressed apprehension that the poll body had removed measures to ensure the integrity of the vote, including scrapping of the ultraviolet security marks on ballots, the source code review and digital signatures.
“If there is failure of elections or widespread fraud, I’m accusing them, the Comelec commissioners, of being active participants, of being complicit, in a conspiracy to commit these acts,” said former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo of the Philippine Bar Association.
There is now no way to determine if the counting machines are 99.9995 percent accurate, he said.
Marcelo disputed the Comelec’s assertion that the hand count would provide opportunities for vote-shaving and -padding. He said that such acts usually took place not at the precincts, but at the canvassing level in the municipalities. It is also open to the public, he said, so there is virtually no chance of shenanigans taking place without being discovered.
“The country cannot afford an election that is done with speed but without accuracy. We believe a 100-percent manual audit of the position of president will make the 2010 election credible,” the Makati Business Club (MBC) said in a statement.
Election may not be accepted
The MBC said that because the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be used in the country’s first nationwide automated balloting had “not been pilot-tested in an actual election as mandated by law, the risk of the machines making mistakes at a rate higher than that provided for (1 mistake ut of 20,000) is quite high.”
“We are gravely concerned that without such a verification of the accuracy of these machines, the election may not be accepted by the people as the true reflection of their will,” it added.
In its decision, the Comelec said it did not scrap the petition because of concerns over cost and logistics but on legal implications of the manual count in the age of electronic balloting.
“In theory, at least, this could even result in enough delay to prevent a proclamation of the President-elect before the 30th of June 2010,” it said.
Random manual audit
The Comelec said that the manual count was not the only way to verify the integrity of the electronic results. It said the random manual audit mandated by law would validate results.
Under the audit scheme, five ballot boxes per district will be chosen randomly for inspection. Auditors would count the votes cast in the PCOS machines and compare these with electronic election returns (ER).
The Comelec was likely to release the rules and guidelines for the random manual audit this week, said spokesperson James Jimenez.
The MBC said that as early as March last year, it had expressed concerns about the limited time left to implement the automated election system.
“But when the national leadership decided to push ahead with full automation, we embraced the project and cooperated with the Comelec in making its implementation successful. However, there were several slippage along the way, which only confirmed our worst fears that the risk of failure of automation was going to be high,” it said.
Proposal made in November
In November 2009, the recommendation for a manual count at least in the contests for president, vice president and mayors was made to Comelec officials in various fora with the business and legal communities, the MBC said, dismissing the poll body’s claims that it was done posthaste.
“The proposals were not formalized so as not to discourage the Comelec, which continued to assert there was enough time to deliver the system as specified. But they missed even their own new deadlines resulting in compromises made, including the disabling of several security features,” it added.
“Our proposal of a manual count was deliberately confined to only three positions in order to keep the process simple and doable, given the limited time left before the election. After all, the purpose of the manual count is to verify that the PCOS machines count correctly, which is the interest of the Comelec as well as of the whole country,” MBC said.
Even just presidential bets
According to MBC, if the Comelec’s objection is the time it takes to count three positions, then they could hand tally just the presidential race. It said this would take less than one hour.
“Ultimately it is the vigilance of the Filipino people that will best protect the integrity of the elections. We call for highly intensified and sustained vigilance on May 10,” the group added.
No comments:
Post a Comment