MANILA, Philippines--The Commission on Elections (Comelec) considers its second field test a success, despite having encountered more glitches than the first test.

Another set of field tests were conducted Friday in 2 precincts each in Pateros and Taguig City, following tests conducted on Wednesday in 10 precincts nationwide. 

The second test was conducted as a response to the request of the joint congressional oversite committee and some civic organizations to have the field test open to the public and covered by media.

Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal told reporters that, just like in the first test, they were able to transmit data from the ballot counting machines to the various servers provided by Comelec during this second field test.

The field tests measures 2 methods for vote count transmission: through GSM, which uses signals provided by telecommunication companies; and through the use of broadband global area network (BGAN), which uses satellites.

"We're both able to transmit using telcos and the satellite. So 100% transmission kami," Larrazabal said.

Same delays
Comelec, however, encountered the same delays as in the first test. The election machine in Aguho Elementary School in Pateros failed to transmit data. In the first field test conducted Wednesday, Comelec and Smartmatic tried to resolve the problem by changing the SIM card used by the broadband in sending the data. This time, however, changing of SIM cards didn't work, so satellite transmission was used instead.

Comelec National Capital Region Director Mike Dioneda said that it took them more than an hour to resolve the problem. All machines, including that in Aguho, were able to transmit data on or before lunch time.

Another problem arose in the same Aguho precinct when the vote counting election machine rejected 4 pre-shaded ballots. Each election machine was fed 10 test ballots. 

Dioneda said that the ballots were rejected probably because they were crumpled. He said that the ballots used in the Wednesday field tests were the same ballots used in today's test. 

"We don't want to speculate that much. We will still find out what happened. We don't want to pre-empt the report that would come out," said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.

The election machine used in the said precinct will be brought to Comelec on Monday to be studied by officials of Smartmatic and Dominion.

Despite the problems, Jimenez remains optimistic with the situation. "The purpose of the test primarily is to shape down the system to make sure that everything that can go wrong goes wrong now so we can fix it." (Newsbreak)