Comelec: Poll results known in 3 days

By: AP, Helen Flores, Jose Rodel Clapano, Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star)
Link: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=566926&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - The results of the country’s first automated general elections will be known within three days.

This was announced by Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez after business groups said they feared the new system would fail.

The Philippines has brought in the nationwide automated system to replace the laborious manual system that took weeks to tabulate results, but influential business groups have called for a manual count as a backup.

In a statement Wednesday, the Management Association of the Philippines urged the Comelec to adopt a parallel nationwide manual count for the president and vice president to “mitigate, if not eliminate, the skepticism of many about the credibility of the automated election system and the results that it will deliver.”

Gordon to Comelec: Ban sample ballots

by Edson C. Tandoc Jr.

From Philippine Daily Inquirer

Link:http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100411-263608/Gordon-to-Comelec-Ban-sample-ballots

CEBU CITY, Philippines—Senator Richard Gordon asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to issue a resolution banning the distribution of sample ballots to voters, warning that these could be exploited to buy votes and sabotage the automated election.

Gordon on Saturday said that allowing national and local candidates to print and give out sample ballots as campaign paraphernalia was also "environmentally unfriendly" and would be an "insane misuse of valuable resources."

Speaking with reporters in this city, Gordon said: "I am calling on the Comelec not to allow sample ballots."

Gordon, who authored the automated election law, warned that saboteurs could purposely insert the sample ballots, which would be designed to look similar to the actual ballot, to jam the counting machines and delay the election.

The sample ballots could also facilitate vote-buying, he added.

He said the shift to an automated election wiped out "wholesale cheating" in the form of selling tampered certificates of canvass but it will force the return to retail-style cheating through massive vote buying.

He also asked the Comelec to limit the number of allowed poll watchers per candidate or party, saying that some candidates hire as many as five poll watchers per precinct which is already a form of vote-buying.

Gordon said: "Everybody should be vigilant."