Comelec assures backup plan for automated polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday said it has a backup plan that will address all contingencies in the implementation of the first automated elections in the country this May.

Comelec legal department head Ferdinand Rafanan said Republic Act 9369, also known as the Poll Automation Law, states that the Comelec and its poll machine supplier, Smartmatic-TIM, must submit "a list of contingency measures, and the policies for activation of such, that are put in place to ensure continuous operation of the [automated election system]."

Rafanan said the backup plan includes various measures to take in case of machine failure during the May 10 polls. He said Smartmatic-TIM will be providing 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the country's 75,000 clustered precincts. "This means that we will have an excess of 7,000 machines during the elections," he said.

He said Comelec personnel have conducted laboratory and field tests of the initial batch of PCOS machines delivered by Smartmatic-TIM. He said all 82,000 PCOS machines will be tested before the election on May 10.

Rafanan said the boards of election inspectors will be composed of three teachers, one of whom will be IT capable. He said Smartmatic-TIM will also deploy 50,000 IT personnel in 35,000 voting centers all over the country on election day.

He added that Comelec could also go back to manual voting during the elections but only as a last resort.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines earlier asked the Comelec to craft a contingency plan in case the automated polls fail to avoid a potential political crisis.

"We must make sure that there are prepared fall back positions that can be quickly adopted when there are some glitches in the system and in the logistics. We have to be vigilant and be involved. One example would be to help in educating voters regarding the AES and in using the equipment,” the prelates said.

The bishops cited the “serious questions” on the reliability and integrity of the machines that would be used in the elections which they also noted “have not been satisfactorily answered.”

Concerns have been raised on the credibility of the winning consortium that bagged the contract to automate the polls. Smartmatic, the main supplier of the machines, has been involved in alleged election anomalies in the United States and Venezuela.

Critics also raised the possibility that system could be manipulated.

The Comelec is pushing ahead in automating the elections nationwide amid concerns that massive glitches could cause a nationwide failure of elections, resulting to a leadership vacuum.