Ex-officials warn of looming failure of May polls
MANILA, Philippines - All indications of a looming failure of the May 10 elections are becoming more visible with the delays and glitches involving the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, former government officials opposed to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Saturday.
"Deliveries, testing, calibration, validation and training for automated elections are delayed. Ballot printing is also delayed... The risks of failures of the 2010 elections are increasing everyday," the group, Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO), said in a statement.
The group said that Mrs. Arroyo should be blamed if the May 10 national and local polls fail.
"All preparations for the [automated elections] occurred under the GMA administration and the Melo Comelec, as the Abalos Comelec, are mostly or totally composed of GMA appointees," the FSGO said.
The FSGO said a failure of elections, even in an automated system, can only be "deliberate" and "engineered by the GMA administration."
The group issued the statement after 2 field tests transmitting counted votes from PCOS machines to several national level servers suffered hitches.
The PCOS machines failed to immediately transmit votes to the central server of the Comelec due to weak mobile network signals. However, the glitches were solved after SIM cards were changed.
Aside from these hitches, several other concerns about the full automation of the May 10 elections have been raised, including the lab and field testing of all the counting machines, late training of teachers, and the fielding of 50,000 IT experts by the Smarmatic-TIM.
The PCOS machines supplier and the Comelec have yet to disclose before a joint congressional oversight committee how and when the IT experts will be mobilized to help address problems in poll automation.
At ABS-CBN News Channel's (ANC) poll automation forum on Friday night, Smartmatic-TIM international sales director Cesar Flores admitted that some PCOS machines might not work during election day.
Flores, however, clarified that measures to avoid machine failures are now being undertaken.
He said all 82,200 PCOS machines will be tested in polling centers 3 days before the actual elections.
Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal assured during the forum that the poll body is prepared to go manual in case the automation system fails.
Larrazabal said the counting of votes manually and automatically on election day can be done. -- Reports from Israel Malasa, ABS-CBN News and ANC
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Give the COMELEC a chance
People commenting about the issue on automatic electronic maybe their opinion is to go back to manual counting.
When you adopt new technolgy to minmize elections cheatings?
my sayad ata 2ng c edong
kung wla kng masabi wak ka ng mag comment kung d mo trip ang balita ng abs-cbn wak ka na ring manood, makinig at magbasa ng kung ano from abs-cbn isama mo c KASKAS preho kaung alang matinong sagot.
ewan ko lng ha d ko naman masasabing tga squatter ka kc ako laking squatter ako pero tinuruan ako ng tamang asal ng mga magulang ko.
SINO BA ITONG MAMA NA NAGSASABI THE FAILURE NG ELECTION
KAILANGAN IBITIN NA PATIWARIK ANG MAMANG NAGSASABI NG FAILURE OF ELECTION. PAPAANO MAG PE-FAIL ANG ELECTION. BAKA NAMAN NAG PI-FAIL ANG UTAK NITONG MAMANG ITO O NASISIRAAN NG BAIT. BAKIT HINDI KA NA LANG TUMULONG PARA PAKINABANGAN KA. NAPAKA BUSISI MO. TULOY PO ANG TRABAHO AT KUNG KAILAGAN NG EXPERTO DI SUMANGGUNI KAYO KAYSA PAACSAYAHAN NINYO NG PANAHONG ITONG SI BUSISI. SINO BA NAMAN ITO BUSISING REPORTER ANG NAGREREPORT NG BALITANG ITO. TUMALON KA NALANG SA KALUMPANG PARA MABAWASAN ANG INIT SA IYONG KATAWAN. AY NAKU TAGA ABS-CBN PALA ANG REPORTER KAYA PALA GUNGUNG.
Transmission failure
The transmission is supposed to go first from precinct to town, then town to provincial, then provincial to central server. Any transmission failure will require the removal of the memory card and manually brought to the next transmission center. A memory card looks exactly the same with one from another PCOS machine and cannot be recognized by sight alone, unless feed into a reading machine. Watchers will not know what is happening, i.e., during removal, safekeeping and reinsertion of the card. Here lies the greatest possibility of fraud - exchanging memory cards with the fraudulently prepared ones. If fraud is to be perpetrated, they will simply declare a failure of transmission and substitute memory cards. Will the watchers know a subsitution was made?
PARTIAL AUTOMATION MUNA
For sure its going to be a nightmare. Dapat partial automation muna. All IT projects pass through a partial operation stage, walang IT project na at first stance full operation na, lalo nat wala tayong karanasan sa poll automation. Whoever is pushing for this full automation has only one objective - failure of election.
Pano magkakaroon ng automation sa mga malalayong lugar ni walang communication, mahirap ang access road, magulo ang peace and order situation at ang mga tao ni hindi alam kung ano ang computer. Dapat i-temper din natin ang ating mga ambition, kung hindi kaya, wag pilitin.
Yung test na ginawa yun na ang mangyayari on a smaller scale, kitang kita nagpapanic na and it failed by more than 10%. On a large scale such as the whole country, a 10% failure is already bangungot.
Hay naku imulat natin ang ating mga mata at alamin kung ano talaga ang agenda ng comelec.
They should prepare backup
They should prepare backup plan if ever the PCOS machines failed. Magsa-suffer ang Philippines kapag nagkaroon ng mga kaguluhan sa result ng election.
Gilbert Teodoro Tiyak Na Ang Panalo.
Habang nabababoy ang election lalo namang gumaganda ang resulta para kay Gibo. Nung panahon ni Gloria wala naman talagang pagasang manalo laban kay FPJ pero dahil sa nasalaula ni Datu Andal Ampatuan ang bilangan sa Maguindanao sa tulong ni Garci, isang milyon pa ang naging lamang niya kay Poe.
HELLO GARCI, YUNG DAGDAG PAKIULIT HA? KAILANGAN SI GIBO ANG MANALO PARA WALA AKONG SABIT!
Transmit Delay not Crucial
As long as the PCOS machine reads and stores perfectly the votes cast in its persistent and secured memory, this reported failure to transmit the vote counts "immediately" should not be taken as a major concern. This is very simple technical issue which can be easily resolved, and any such time lapse (that may occur) could never serve as "window of opportunity" for those shameless political thieves with dagdag-bawas, vote-switching and other tricks on their sleeves. The FSGO should realize this.
What is crucial is that voters can securely cast their ballots thru the PCOS. Failure of elections could never be triggered by any "technical delay" in the transmission of the PCOS vote counts; on
the contrary, it will blow up on our faces if Comelec reverts to the old, abominable manual elections system because of "millennium bug mentality" of some people, toned up with "Wolf! Wolf!" cries of dishonorable politicians.
Our choice: one-day slippage in electronic transmission of vote counts (free of shavings), or one-week delay in manual transmission of vote counts, loaded with political shits?