MANILA, Philippines - A Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman downplayed the results of a recent Pulse Asia survey which showed an increase in the number of voters with little or no knowledge about poll automation.

"We did not set out our information campaign to turn people into automation experts," Comelec spokesman James Jimenez told ANC's Dateline Philippines, reacting to the latest Pulse Asia survey that shows 7 out of 10 voters know little or nothing about the automated election system.

Jimenez clarified that the Comelec's main goal in its voter's education campaign is to teach people how to properly shade election ballots that would be fed into the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines or the voting machines.

He added that the Comelec's information drive also aims to make people realize that an automated election system is more credible than manual elections.

"Our focus is to get them to accept the results of the elections and be intelligent participants by knowing how to use the modern ballot," Jimenez said.

The January 22 to 26 survey, using a multistage probability sample of 1,800 adults of voting age, showed that 71% had little to no knowledge about the automated election system.

Several quarters said the survey showed that the Comelec's education drive on poll automation has been ineffective.

Positive outlook

Jimenez said that the Pulse Asia survey is actually seen by the Comelec as a positive development for their education drive.

For Comelec, the most important part of the survey was when voters were asked whether they think automation can be an effective way to have clean and honest elections.

The survey found that 48% or one in 2 Filipinos think the May 2010 elections will be clean and its results credible due to automation. Only 14% of the respondents do not trust the modern system, while 37% remain hesitant about the system.

Jimenez said the Comelec feels vindicated by the survey since making people believe in the automation system was "is the target from the very beginning."

He also assured voters that people who have been given important roles in the automated election system, including government IT experts and teachers as board of election inspectors, are being properly trained by the Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM, which won the multi-million automation contract.

He added that voters should not worry about the technical aspects of the modern system.

Jimenez said that what's important is that voters will be able to learn to "engage the system."

Comelec doesn't micromanage

Meanwhile, Jimenez also downplayed the concern of a watchdog group regarding Smartmatic-TIM's move to partner with "under capitalized" freight forwarders for the delivery of PCOS machines to more than 70,000 voting centers around the country.

"Let's give a little credence to Smartmatic. This is not the first time they [freight forwarders ] will do this. Give a little faith on their ability to deliver," the Comelec spokesman said.

He said the Comelec does not actually mind if Smartmatic has partnered with small-scale freight forwarders for the delivery of the machines, which will take place less than a week before May 10.

He added that the Comelec is only "looking at the results," and it would not be appropriate to "micromanage" Smartmatic.

"We have oversight, but we cannot step in every instance. Otherwise, we'd do it ourselves," he said.

He explained that Comelec signed a contract with Smartmatic-TIM because it passed all the poll body's criteria in the automated elections.

He also said the Comelec will step in as soon as they see that Smartmatic-TIM's actions would bungle the automated elections.
Jimenez said Comelec is actually on schedule, and "things are going well" in terms of the Smartmatic-TIM's deliverables.

"You just make sure you're on top of the situation, but if not necessary, you let people do their jobs," Jimenez said.