Sanctions eyed vs Smartmatic

Source: philstar.com

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) bared yesterday that it is considering penalties against Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) after the May 10 polls for the malfunction of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines during final testing last Monday.Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the poll body could not just ignore what happened and they would study the possible penalties that could be imposed against Smartmatic-TIM.

“We’ll study the contract first. But we can do this after the elections because right now, we have so many things to do,” he said.

The Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM started last Monday the final field tests of the PCOS machines at the polling precincts, but some machines failed to read the votes cast for some local candidates whose names are printed at the back of the official ballots.

The glitches were traced to the wrong configuration of the compact flash cards installed in the PCOS machines, which are supposed to contain information like the polling precinct number and the number of registered voters in a particular precinct.

The incident had revived calls to either postpone the election or to revert to the manual system, citing lack of confidence in the security and accuracy of the automated election system.

Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific Cesar Flores said some of the PCOS machines failed to read the votes for the local candidates whose names were printed on the second row. The machines did not have a problem reading the votes cast for the national bets.

The names of the local bets are printed double spaced while the names of the candidates for national positions are printed single spaced.

Smartmatic-TIM had recalled all the flash cards installed in more than 76,000 PCOS machines. Some 62,000 flash cards will be replaced with new cards from Taiwan and Hong Kong while the rest would be re-configured.

Larrazabal revealed that Smartmatic-TIM did not include running pre-marked or pre-voted official ballots through the PCOS in the tests conducted at the National Printing Office where the ballots were printed.

He claimed that the firm only checked if the machines could read the ballots’ security markings like the Comelec seal and the bar codes and if the information printed on the ballots were aligned.

“It was because we did not print an extra (official) ballot to allay suspicions of cheating. Had we printed a single extra ballot, some people would think that it would be used for cheating,” he maintained.

The Comelec had printed 49,000 ballots to be used in the final testing of the PCOS machines to be conducted seven to three days before election day in the polling centers in the presence of political parties, citizen’s arm and poll watchdog representatives. After the machines have been sealed, they should be opened only on election day.

Meanwhile, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPeG) hit the Comelec for allowing Smartmatic-TIM to recycle the cards.    

CenPEG director Bobby Tuazon said the “limited material time remaining to do this daunting task increases the likelihood of erroneous re-configuration, precinct-specific flash cards being sent to other destinations, flash card switching, and higher security risks, among other problems.”

 “Just like what happened in other stages of Comelec’s pre-election preparations, quality control will suffer and, if push comes to shove, Smartmatic technicians will end up with more and bigger problems,” Tuazon added.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said that some flash cards would just have to be re-configured due to lack of time to find suppliers that could provide new flash cards immediately.

Jimenez added that the number of flash cards to be replaced is a lot more than the number of cards that were actually found mis-configured. 

Comelec extends testing of PCOS machines

The Comelec has also extended the period of final testing and sealing of the PCOS machines until May 9, one day before the elections.

In a resolution published in a daily broadsheet yesterday, the Comelec said the extension was made due to the failure of some PCOS machines to read votes accurately last Monday.

“There is a need to suspend the conduct of final testing and sealing in all areas until such time as the configuration for local positions has been corrected,” the resolution stated.

Comelec has nullified a previous resolution which stated that the testing and sealing of the PCOS machines should be conducted three to seven days before election day. 

The poll body directed election officers to notify the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) about the new date, time and place of the testing and sealing of PCOS machines.

The BEIs are expected to test 10 pre-shaded ballots and see whether the PCOS unit will read the votes.

Smartmatic reported yesterday that 50,153 or 66 percent of the required flash cards have been shipped out of the firm’s warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna.

Gene Gregorio of Smartmatic said that 60 percent of the 76,000 polling precincts nationwide have already received the PCOS machines.

“We expect to reach 85 percent PCOS coverage by end of Friday,” Gregorio said, noting that 95 percent of polling precincts in Metro Manila have received the automated machines.

Meanwhile, a civil society group asked the Supreme Court yesterday to order the Comelec to reactivate a security feature in the PCOS machines that they believe could salvage the country’s first automated poll on Monday from imminent failure.

In a 10-page petition for prohibition and mandamus, the Compact for Peaceful and Democratic Elections (Compact) said Comelec should bring back the digital signatures of members of the BEI in digital transmission of results.

“The electronic transmission of election returns, without the required digital signature, transgresses the prevailing law, is highly illegal, and would result in a plethora of electoral protests,” said the petitioners led by Compact convener former Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales.

They argued that this security feature is required under Section 22 of RA 8436 as amended by Sec.19 of RA 9369 (the poll automation law), which provides that “the election returns transmitted electronically and digitally signed shall be considered as official election results and shall be used as basis for the canvassing of votes and the proclamation of a candidate.”

The Comelec has offered once again for thorough scrutiny the source code of the automated election system (AES).

The Comelec assured the public that the poll body would disclose the preparations for the country’s first automated elections in compliance with the Supreme Court ruling.

“The source code is still available to any one who wants to check,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said.

He said the Comelec has been very transparent in its preparations for the automated election even without the High Court ruling.

“We have no qualms showing our work,” Jimenez said, adding that it has complied with the mandatory third party review of the source code.

Jimenez said the Comelec has been very willing to open the source for review by political parties on condition that it would not be taken out of the Comelec premises.

“Due to security concerns, the Comelec cannot just allow any group to take the source code out of the Comelec premises, we cannot give it to just anyone who wants to take a look without guarantee that they will not use it for malicious purposes and malicious ends,” Jimenez explained.

 “The SC decision simply requires us to furnish the petitioning party with whatever documents they are asking for. Again, this is something we have done every single time every time someone asks anything from us,” Jimenez said.

He also said the poll body is optimistic that there would no longer be any delay in the counting of votes with all the flash cards to be delivered before election day.

“The cards have arrived in their destination earlier than expected, so we hope the five percent worst case scenario would not come to pass,” Jimenez disclosed.

Teachers express apprehension

Public school teachers, especially those in Metro Manila, have expressed alarm over the rescheduling of the final sealing and testing of the PCOS machines from yesterday to Sunday, or just one day before the elections.

Benjamin Basas, chairman on the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), said that teachers serving as members or heads of the various BEIs in Caloocan, Malabon, Valenzuela, Navotas, Quezon City, Manila, Mandaluyong, Taguig, Pateros and some areas in Parañaque have been told yesterday of the postponement of the testing of the PCOS machines.

“We believe that we are the ones being put in a very difficult position by all these postponements and PCOS machine malfunction problems of the Comelec and Smartmatic,” Basas said.

He added that with the rescheduling of the testing and sealing of PCOS machines, teachers are becoming pessimistic, if not fatalistic, about the automated election system they are supposed to implement on election day.

“We are losing confidence with all these problems. Good luck na lang sa ating lahat (to all of us),” Basas said. 

“After Monday’s glitches, teachers have been more apprehensive of the system – their level of confidence has diminished and the trust for the system was severely affected. With another postponement to a day before the actual vote, how could we be able to fix the system when testing fails again? How sure are we that the machines and the flash cards will work properly? If not, what shall we do on Sunday to prepare for Monday’s big event?” the TDC said in a group statement.

Some 250,000 public school teachers will serve on election day as member or chief of the BEIs.

Basas, a Caloocan City public high school teacher, is among the teacher-BEI heads.

Sen. Edgardo Angara has raised the specter of a no elections (no-el) scenario despite assurance by the Comelec that automated elections nationwide will be held as scheduled on Monday.

Angara said that no-el might prevail and that there could be no casting of ballots on Monday, since it is hard to believe the Comelec’s assurance that elections would push through after the machines passed a second round of tests.

“I believe it will be no-el. I don’t believe the Comelec saying they are not ready then suddenly they are ready (for automated elections),” he said. With Mayen Jaymalin, Edu Punay, Helen Flores, Rainier Allan Ronda, Manny Galvez