Half of voters at every clustered precinct will not be able to vote in the May 10 polls due to insufficient time, effectively disenfranchising a number of voters come election day, a study conducted by a convener of multi-sectoral poll watchdog Kontra Daya (Anti-Fraud) showed.

In an interview with GMANews.TV, Prof. Giovanni Tapang of the University of the Philippines’ National Institute of Physics said he had simulated the voting process using a programming language package called the Simulation in Python (SimPy).

“We get results showing that more than half of the 1,000 voters lining up at the clustered precinct will not be able to finish by 6 p.m,” Tapang said.

Voting on May 10, 2010 will begin at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m., or a total of 11 hours. The Commission on Elections expects 50,723,734 voters to flock to 76,340 clustered precincts nationwide on May 10.

Each clustered precinct will have one Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine and three Board of Election Inspector members. One poll machine can supposedly accommodate about a thousand voters.

On election day, Tapang said, a voter must find his name on the list of voters within 15 minutes and have his identity verified by election inspectors within two-and-a-half minutes. Anything longer than that would mean a backlog, he pointed out.

“If he takes longer than this, chances are that the queue will pile up and not everyone will be able to vote,” Tapang said.

Voting process

He also said the chairman of the Board of Election Inspectors only has 40 seconds to check a voter’s name against the list and facilitate the voting.

Filling out the ballot, he added, should not take more than 10 minutes, and feeding it into the PCOS machine should not take longer than 40 seconds.

“If the whole procedure takes longer than that, the number of voters unable to vote… drastically increases,” Tapang said.

Based on his calculations, he said only 495 of the expected 1,000 voters will be able to vote.

He also said at least 95 voters must arrive every hour to make sure the full number can be accommodated by 6 p.m.

Tapang said the simulation did not take into account “untoward incidents.” It also did not include bathroom and lunch breaks for election inspectors and any possible electronic problems.

“Even if a voter moves fast, if the election inspector is the problem, then there will still be a long line,” he said in Filipino.

Dependent on voters

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal earlier said they had also conducted voting simulations, and that they had managed to pull it off, accommodating about 120 voters per hour. In one instance, they managed to helped about 400 voters before lunch.

“The notion that you can’t process 1,000 voters in 11 hours doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo, for his part, said the flow of the voting process would also depend on the voters.

“My advice to the voters is go to polling places early and avoid last-minute voting,” Melo said in Filipino. — By Kimberly Jane Tane, GMANews.TV

Filipinos clueless on how to vote electronically in the 2010 polls can learn about the process if it will be explained in gambling terms.

Nacionalista Party spokesperson Gilbert Remulla said the Commission on Elections could help voters understand the mechanics of the automated elections if the poll body would use instructions similar to that of playing lotto.

“Just like shading numbers to bet on, shading the proper circle beside the candidate’s name will ensure their votes will be counted. This will ensure a common understanding of the voting process,” he said.

Remulla said the Comelec would be able save time in its poll education campaign if voters would be taught of the process through the “lotto method.”

Five months before the conduct of the country’s first nationwide automated elections, six out of 10 voters still have little to no knowledge at all about the polls, according to a survey conducted by Pulse Asia. [See: 6 of 10 Pinoys remain clueless about automation – Pulse Asia]

Nonetheless, the Comelec remains optimistic that it will be able to educate the voters before the elections. [See: Comelec: Low voter awareness ‘expected’]

For his part, former President Joseph Estrada said the Comelec should just limit the areas that would have poll automation to two cities in Luzon, two cities in the Visayas and two cities in Mindanao.

“That way, in case of a failure of elections due to the lack of information and education on the machines, the failure will be confined only to these cities,” he said in a press statement.

In the same statement, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, Estrada’s running mate, expressed hope that the survey result would serve as a wake up call for the poll body.

He urged the Comelec to intensify its voters’ education campaign. “Hopefully, they will now see the urgency of holding an intensive voters’ education campaign on how to use the counting machines,” he said.

Vice presidential bets Senators Manuel Roxas II and Loren Legarda expressed the same sentiments.

“The survey underscores the need for massive information campaign,” Roxas said in a text message to GMANews.TV

Legarda said the Comelec should be effective in educating and informing the voters so as not to disenfranchise electorates from class D and E sectors of society.

Senator Francis Escudero, co-chairman of the congressional oversight committee on poll automation, dared the poll body to give a full update on the progress of the implementation of full automation of the 2010 polls.

“Except for the occasional press release and sound bite, we have not heard the Comelec provide a complete picture of where we are now insofar as this historic undertaking is concerned,” he said.

He added that had the survey did not come out, the Comelec would not have bothered to tell about their plan to launch a massive information drive.

“If the Comelec can’t even conduct an effective information campaign on the system, what more a full automation of the elections?” said Escudero

Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Gordon said it is now the media’s turn to educate the voting public.

“The media has the social role in getting the message out. It is still possible to inform the people. We still have five months to go,” he said. – JHU, ARCS, GMANews.TV

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) wants a closer look at the questions in a survey that showed up to three of five Filipinos clueless about the automated system for the 2010 polls.

In a radio interview Friday, Comelec spokesperson James Arthur Jimenez contested the findings of Pulse Asia’s latest survey, saying the questions may have been too “technical.”

“If the questions were to ask people about PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan), it’s unlikely they will know. Our focus is on their interface with the system, how to operate the system,” Jimenez said in an interview on dwIZ radio.

He said the Comelec had been conducting its voters’ education program for the last several months, in preparation for the May 2010 elections.

Jimenez also said the Comelec had been training people on the use of the automated machines even in “very remote places.”

“We are concerned…maybe the questions are a bit technical or something not the focus of voter education,” he said.

The Pulse Asia survey conducted last October 22 to 30 showed public awareness about the automated election system remained low.

It showed two of five Filipinos (40 percent) admitted knowing “little about it,” and about one in five (21 percent) saying they have almost no or no knowledge about the new system. [See: Comelec: Low voter awareness ‘expected’]

“On the other hand, only 13 percent claim to have a great deal of knowledge about the AES while 26 percent say they know enough about it,” Pulse Asia said. – JHU/RSJ, GMANews.TV

Five months going into the May 2010 polls, a big majority of Filipinos remains clueless about the automated elections, pollster Pulse Asia said Thursday.

A survey conducted by Pulse Asia from October 22 to 30 revealed that six out of 10 Filipinos, or 61 percent of the 1,800 respondents, have little to no knowledge at all about the automation that will be implemented in the upcoming polls.

According to the survey, the lack of knowledge about automation is most pronounced among the poor and very poor Filipinos (Classes D and E), where up to 47 percent or close to half of the respondents admitted knowing little about the automated polls.

In contrast, only one in every four Filipinos said they have enough knowledge about the automated election system. An even a smaller percentage, 13 percent of the respondents, said they have a great deal of knowledge about poll automation.

Pulse Asia also said that public indecision about the automation remains high at 43 percent, although another four in 10 think that the automatic counting of votes will result in cleaner elections in 2010.

Optimism about the automated polls is highest among the very poor (Class E) at 47 percent, the survey showed.

Similarly, a big majority of Filipinos (or 67 percent of the respondents) believes it is “highly likely” that the elections will proceed as scheduled on May 10, 2010. Only 10 percent, or one in every ten Filipinos, think next year’s polls will not take place.

Although a positive outlook about the 2010 elections is prevalent, a near majority of Filipinos, or 49 percent, thinks there will be much trouble in the country in case next year’s automated polls do not push through.

The same Pulse Asia survey also showed that almost one in every two Filipinos, or 49 percent of the respondents, is inclined to support but not join protests and public actions that might arise in case the May 2010 polls will not proceed as scheduled.

Pulse Asia’s survey involving election-related questions was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 1,800 adults across the country. According to the pollster, its latest survey results have a margin of error of plus or minus two percent. - RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV

House Speaker Prospero Nograles on Thursday dared Senator Richard Gordon to identify the congressmen who he said are out to sabotage next year’s automated elections.

“Name the names because we are already 268 congressmen and congresswomen. It’s hard to solve his crossword puzzle,” Nograles said in a statement.

“It is is unfair to the 268 members of the House of Representatives, and to all concerned who are now toiling to make the 2010 polls a success,” he added.

Gordon claimed Wednesday that he received reports that some congressmen are plannnig to stop the implementation of the 2010 polls. The senator, however, did not substantiate his claim. [See: 'Politicians out to sabotage 2010 polls']

Even as he said Gordon probably had no ill intentions in making the statement, Nograles said what the senator said was “uncalled for” and that it was “unfair” for him not to give out details.

Gordon is the author of the Republic Act 9369 or the Amended Automated Elections System Law.

In his press conference Wednesday, he said the politicians out to sabotage the 2010 polls are afraid that they would lose in the elections.

Despite widely-voiced fears about possible electoral fraud, Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials have repeatedly assured that they would ensure clean, honest, and orderly elections in 2010. - GMANews.TV

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will be sending a two-man team to Shanghai on the first week of December to inspect the factory that is manufacturing the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, an official said Wednesday.

“We’re sending people who have a handle on the technical aspects of the preparations, there will be Comelec representatives for the purpose of ensuring that everything will be going smoothly so that we will make the delivery dates,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told reporters at a news briefing at the poll body’s headquarters in Manila.

Citing the move as “proactive,” Jimenez said they are sending the two-man team to evaluate the state of readiness, the production schedules, and the possibility of making the scheduled delivery dates on time.

He said the poll body has yet to identify the persons who will be conducting the inspection, adding that only Comelec personnel with a background in engineering and information technology will be considered.

Renato Garcia, IT consultant of Comelec chairman Jose Melo, told reporters that he will probably be one of them.

Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III asked the Comelec to explain why it had supposedly let Smartmatic-Total Information Management drop the Taiwanese company JarlTech as the manufacturer of the PCOS machines and instead, switched to a Shanghai-based company.

Gene Gregorio, Smartmatic-TIM spokesperson, told GMANews.TV that JarlTech just transferred its operations to Shanghai because it is less likely to be affected by typhoons, unlike Taiwan.

Jimenez added that the supply lines are reportedly better in Shanghai.

If there are no problems, he said they expect 42,200 PCOS machines to be delivered by December while 40,000 more will be delivered in February.

Jimenez said the PCOS machines will only have a base configuration when they arrive in the country. The machines will then undergo a battery of tests and will then be configured for a specific precinct.

“When they pass the testing stage, that is the time when we will configure them based on the precinct assignments because every precinct is unique,” he said.

Earlier, Smartmatic-TIM also explained that the Aboitiz-owned forwarder 2Go did not pull out from its contract to provide logistics services in terms of delivering and maintaining the machines all over the country.

Gregorio said that they only added regional forwarders to 2Go in order to incur “lesser risks.”

Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said Smartmatic-TIM will also be conducting a site survey of the poll precincts all over the Philippines in coordination with the Department of Education.

“We will also be conducting a technical workshop this week, the purpose of this workshop is to provide the framework for the voting process and the design of the workplace and classroom itself,” he told reporters. – GMANews.TV

Akbayan party-list group and other non-government organizations on Wednesday raised concern on the possibility of new forms of cheating that may occur during the 2010 automated elections.

Lawyer Ibarra Gutierrez III of the University of the Philippines said the lack in transparency on the part of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) consortium might give abusive politicians an opportunity to commit electoral fraud or even cause failure of elections in 2010.

Gutierrez said the non-disclosure of the source code used in the automated counting machines by Smartmatic-TIM, the consortium which bagged the P7.2 billion poll automation contract, may allow “built-in” cheating mechanisms in the coming polls.

“This is the biggest automation project in the world. The non-disclosure of the source code really raises concern on the integrity on the program to be used,” he said in a forum in Quezon City.

The forum was organized by Akbayan, the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, and the Active Citizen Foundation.

Another non-governmental organization, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (Cenpeg), has filed a petition before the Supreme Court earlier this month, asking the high court to compel Comelec to make the source codes available to the public.

Lawyer Ferdinand Rafanan of the Comelec Legal Department meanwhile defended the poll automation, saying that it has complied with minimum system requirements stated in Republic Act 9369 or the Election Automation Law.

“The Supreme Court has already affirmed automated elections. Just trust the Comelec that we would ensure clean, honest and orderly elections in 2010,” he said.

Gutierrez likewise raised concern on the absence of any means for the voters to ensure that the votes they cast were counted correctly. “How will we know if our votes were counted correctly? There is nothing we can do but trust the machine,” he said.

The lawyer also said that the Comelec still has not clarified how the 82,000 machines be used during the elections are to be secured and safely stored days before the election.

Gutierrez added that while the practice of manually adding and removing votes in favor of a certain candidate may become “virtually impossible” due to the automation, other “traditional” forms of cheating such as vote-padding and casting of unused ballots to increase the votes of a candidate may still continue.

Former Akbayan Rep. Etta Rosales, for her part, said that the poll automation would remain immaterial unless the Comelec does something to clean up voters’ lists across the country.

“Hangga’t hindi natin nalilinis ang voters’ registration lists, huwag na tayong mag-usap ng automation (Unless we can cleanse voters’ registration lists, let’s not even talk about automation),” she said.

Rosales cited the example of Taguig City where almost 700 voters over the age of 100 are still in the voters’ list.

“(I ask) the Comelec to take immediate action with respect to this anomaly. There are more ‘Taguigs’ outside Metro Manila. Let us not waste time,” she said. – GMANews.TV

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) expressed fears Thursday that it might end up conducting a manual election in some areas next year if suppliers Smartmatic Corp. and Total Information Management (TIM) fail to fix the bugs in its transmission system.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo mentioned such possibility after acting director Jeannie Flororito of the poll body’s Information Technology Department said that at least 25 percent of areas nationwide don’t have transmission systems.

“Malamang na mag-manual tayo kung ‘yang 25 percent na ‘yan ay hindi mahanapan ng nararapat na technology (We might end up going manual if we don’t find the needed technology for that 25 percent,” said Melo.

In the planned automated elections, transmission is needed for the electronic relay of results from the precinct level and up. With it, ballot counting in the precinct is pegged to be done within an hour, while results can be made available within 36.

Flororito said that so far, 75 percent of areas in the country already have the necessary mode of transmission. These areas have in place more than 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

The Smartmatic and TIM consortium, however, was quick to add that it has yet to determine if there really are areas that have no such technology. “We are still in the process of determining that,” said their spokesman Cesar Flores.

Comelec ICT consultant Renato Garcia said they have already made arrangements with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and some telecommunications providers to be able to determine where Smartmatic-TIM should put the necessary adjustments.

He said the survey will start in the first week of October and will end in the middle of November, giving the Comelec ample time to evaluate the chances of full automation in 2010.

By December 15, the Comelec hopes to be able to determine whether there really will be full automation or not, said executive director Jose Tolentino.

The poll body said it is expecting the first batch of 20,000 PCOS in October. The remaining 60,000, on the other hand, will be delivered in November and December. – GMANews.TV

Amid prospects of brownouts disrupting the 2010 automated elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reassured the public Friday its counting machines can cope with power failures – but only for about 12 hours.

BROWNOUT PROOF? Smartmatic sales director Cesar Flores briefs newsmen on the functions and reliability of the Smartmatic DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) machine during a media presentation in Manila for the 2010 elections. GMANews.TV file photo

Comelec law department head Ferdinand Rafanan said they have also drawn up safety nets to cope with possible problems in the polls, particularly with their Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

“Even if there is a brownout, all our PCOS-Optical Mark Read machines have batteries that can last some 12 hours,” Rafanan said in Filipino over dwIZ radio.

Rafanan chided doomsayers for insinuating that the Comelec is not competent enough to handle these problems. He did not elaborate on these solutions, however. [Read more about automated polls here.]

“We have foreseen possible problems, and put in place backup plans for each problems. The Comelec is thinking, it has foresight and it has solutions,” he said.

Rafanan added they have thought of other possible scenarios, and have worked out solutions for them. Last July, the Comelec said it would tap some 80,000 information technology (IT) people to handle the voting machines.

Anticipating the possibility that not enough public school teachers would be able to fill the required staff, the Comelec plans to tap IT personnel from various government agencies. [See: Comelec to tap 80,000 IT people for 2010 elections]

Earlier this week, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes warned the country would be plagued by widespread power interruptions noting that Visayas and Mindanao have already been experiencing brownouts.

On Thursday, Malacañang ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) to back up its assurances of a zero-brownout situation during the election period.

“I heard from Sec. Reyes that his department is making sure there will be no brownouts, and especially no blackouts. It is the DOE’s job to make sure our energy supply will be stable and sufficient. Not only that, it should remain affordable,” Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in Filipino in a separate dzXL radio interview.

Brownouts created by Malacañang

But Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Reyes’ prediction of brownouts in 2010 hints of a No-Election (No-El) scenario being cooked up by Malacañang.

Lacson told reporters that Reyes’ comment on possible brownouts was ill-advised, adding the timing of his claim was “suspect” if not tainted with “malice.”

“Pwedeng sabihing kinukundisyon niya ang utak natin na magbabrownout sa eleksyon (His statements can be interpreted as an attempt to condition the public’s mind that there will be brownouts during the election) and that’s very dangerous,” Lacson said.

“We will have computerized elections in 2010, the computerized counting machines will have backup power supply but I don’t think it will be enough,” Lacson adedd. – GMANews.TV

IT’S A GO! In this file photo, Comelec chief Jose Melo (second from right) awards the deal to Smartmatic-TIM, winning party to automate the polls. The Supreme Court rules Thursday that the P7.2-billion deal is legal. Comelec

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the legality of the government’s P7.2-billion contract for the automation of next year’s national elections – a ruling that was leaked earlier this week.

In a 49-page en banc ruling penned by Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., the court said it did not find grave abuse of discretion when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) awarded the contract to the partnership of Smartmatic and Total Information Management (TIM).

The court said the petitioners – the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) – were unable to present “factual basis” for the arguments they raised in their July 9 petition seeking to nullify the deal.

It said the petitioners, led by University of the Philippines Prof. Harry Roque, failed to prove that the joint venture agreement between Smartmatic and TIM is not valid and that the consortium did not qualify to be granted the award of the automation contract.

The high court noted that the joint venture remained an unincorporated entity during the bid-opening and evaluation stages, and that its non-incorporation was without a vitiating effect on the validity of the tender offers.

“Petitioners’ beef against the TIM-Smartmatic JVA is untenable. First, the Comelec knows the very entities they are dealing with, which it can hold solidarily liable under the automation contract, should there be a violation,” the court said.

Secondly, it said, there is nothing under RA 8436 or the 1997 Poll Automated Election System law that says all suppliers, manufacturers or distributors involved in the transaction should be part of the joint venture.

It said there is no abdication of the Comelec’s mandate and responsibility, contrary to the petitioners’ fears, as there is nothing in the contract that says Smartmatic should be charge of the technical aspect of the counting.

In its petition, the CCM also questioned the reliability of the precinct count optical system (PCOS) machines that would be used for the elections, noting its high margin of error.

The Supreme Court, however, said the machines passed the technical requirements for the computerization of the 2010 polls. It also said that pilot tests on the machines, which were requested by CCM, were unnecessary as this was not a Comelec requirement.

Voting with the majority decision were Chief Justice Reynato Puno, and Justices Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Renato Corona, Minita Chico-Nazario, Antonio Eduardo Nachura, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo and Roberto Abad.

Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Conchita Carpio-Morales and Arturo Brion dissented.

Puno came up with a separate opinion saying fears that the automation program would fail should not be overwhelming since the Comelec has placed safeguards.

“Full automation will not completely cleanse the dirt in our electoral system. But it is a big forward step which can lead us to the gateway of real democracy where the vote of the people is sacred and supreme,” Puno said.

SC spokesperson Midas Marquez told GMA News that the CCM was given 15 days to file a motion for reconsideration.

Even as it ruled against the CCM petition, the tribunal said it was up to the Comelec to ensure that an automated election would work.

“Neither will it guarantee, as it cannot guarantee, the effectiveness of the voting machines and the integrity of the counting and consolidation software embedded in them. That task belongs at the first instance to the Comelec as part of its mandate to ensure clean and peaceful elections,” the court said.

WHO LEAKED IT? A concerned citizens group led by lawyer Harry Roque (left) accuses Comelec chairman Jose Melo of contempt for divulging details of an unpromulgated ruling on the automated polls. File photos from GMANews.TV and Comelec

Leak

Hours before the SC ruling came out, the CCM asked the court to investigate the supposed leaking of the same decision two days ago.

Information on the ruling prematurely came out after Comelec chairman Jose Melo reacted positively on Tuesday about the high court’s decision. [See: Comelec welcomes reported SC vote in favor of 2010 poll automation]

CCM lawyer Roque said Melo’s action constitutes an improper conduct that tends to directly or indirectly impede, obstruct or degrade the administration of justice.

“If public respondent Melo can flaunt his commission or illegal acts in obtaining confidential proceedings of the Supreme Court, then, how can he be trusted with the sanctity of the electoral process,” petitioners said.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said they got the information from “sources who had been monitoring the progress of the case.”

With the ruling, Melo said there is no stopping the Comelec from acquiring the PCOS machines that will be supplied by the consortium of Smartmatic and TIM, which the poll body declared as the winning bidder last July 10.

Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the new petition would be tackled during the tribunal’s regular en banc session on Tuesday, next week. . - GMANews.TV