Icot calls for vigilance in 2010 automated elections
TACLOBAN CITY – Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla called for vigilance among local chief executives of the province in the coming May 2010 automated polls as well as for the voters to remain watchful during the whole election process for honest, clean and accurate elections.
Local chief executives representing the 41 municipalities of the province were present in a briefing with representatives from the Commission on Elections during a forum organized by the League of Municipalities- Leyte Chapter (LMP-Leyte) and the provincial government of Leyte.
Gov. Petilla said since this is a “first” for all Filipino voters, the public officials themselves, particularly those gunning for a new term, should know themselves how the automation process should go about.
Atty. Richard Alvin Japson, the Comelec representative invited to the forum, discussed the features of the automated counting machines (ACMs), also known as the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that the Comelec will use in the 2010 elections.
Japson emphasized that the PCOS are more secure, fast, transparent and clean.
He pointed out in his presentation that the PCOS have been proven successful in elections in other countries and made comparisons of the old system of voting with the new automated one to be used in the coming May polls.
“With the automated counting, the counting will be done in one minute. In the old system, the ballot is placed in the ballot box, then leave the precinct. With the automation, after filling or shading his ballot can himself place the ballot into the counting machine and it will be counted,” the Comelec representative said.
Under the old system, the voter would need to write the entire names of the candidates of their choice, while under the automated system, the voter would simply shade the figure beside the name of the candidate of their choice.
“Once you over vote, the ballot will not be read by the machine and that will be considered stray vote,” Japson explained.
He said under the new system, no one except for the Board of Elections Inspectors, would handle the ballots that would be electronically transmitted.
Japson said there is no need for the voter to linger in the polling precinct, since the transmission of the results of the elections could be done in half a second and the new system would also ensure that the winner would be proclaimed sooner.
The Comelec has prepared a contingency plan in case any of the machines malfunction.
Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to be used for the 2010 elections are the same kinds used in elections in other countries, specifically in Canada and the United States.
As reported earlier by Comelec, more than 7,000 Chinese-made voting machines were received by the Philippines’ poll body during the later part of December in a move that will try to beat the government’s deadline for automated elections.
Although the batch of equipment is just a fraction of the 82,200 voting machines required to be delivered on February 28, 2010, the Comelec nevertheless remained optimistic about this May’s poll automation with the next batch of poll machines set to arrive this January and the remaining on the set deadline. (AHLETTE C. REYES)
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