Press Release
January 2, 2007

PIMENTEL SAYS COMELEC IS RIGHT IN SAYING
AUTOMATED 2007 POLLS NOT POSSIBLE

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the Commission on Elections has taken a correct position by dropping the plan to automate the May 14, 2007 national and local elections for lack of time.

With just four and a half months left before the elections, Pimentel said it is simply impossible for the Comelec to set up the automated election system.

He warned that a hastily-implemented computerized voting and counting process will only have disastrous results even if it will cover only six provinces and six cities.

Under the final version of the proposed Automated Election Act ratified by the Senate and House of Representatives, partial poll automation will cover six provinces and six highly-urbanized cities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in 2007. Full automation will be implemented in 2010.

“That is really a flawed proposal. And I think the Comelec is acting prudently by deciding not to go ahead with the automation of the coming elections,” Pimentel said.

The minority leader said the Comelec needs a much longer time (than four and a half months) to bid out the automation project, procure the vote and counting machines, test the machines, train elections personnel on their use and educate voters about the new system.

Pimentel recalled that Comelec was given 13 months to computerize the May, 2004 elections but the automation contract awarded to the winning bidder, MegaPacific consortium, was voided by the Supreme Court due to legal infirmities in the contract and defects in the automated counting machines.

He said what he had proposed was the pilot-testing of the automated electoral system in two provinces, two cities and two municipalities.

“Automation should not cover too many areas because if it falters, that will wreck the elections. Millions of voters may be disenfranchised and this is very unfair to them,” he said.

Pimentel said the huge number of votes in the six provinces and six cities covered by the proposed partial automated electoral system is enough to decide the fate of the senatorial candidates.

The Comelec abandoned the plan to automate the 2007 polls upon the recommendation of its advisory council which came out with an assessment that time constraints make it impossible to implement the project.

The council is composed, among others, of representatives from science and education departments, Commission on Information and Communications Technology, Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines, and Philippine Computer Society.

Pimentel said that with or without automation, there should be a revamp of the leadership of the Comelec to restore public confidence in the poll body which was severely impaired by the fraud-tainted May, 2004 presidential election.

He said three Comelec Commissioners suffer from serious credibility problem because of their involvement in the anomalous P1.3 billion poll automation contract.

But he said three other Comelec members who were appointed after the 2004 elections – Commissioners Romeo Brawner, Rene Sarmiento and Nicodemo Ferrer – should be given a chance to prove their worth in conducting honest, orderly and peaceful elections next year.

Noting that there is one vacant slot in the seven-man Comelec, Pimentel urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to heed his long-standing proposal to fill up the position from among the nominees of the opposition if only to ensure that there will be no repetition of the massive electoral fraud in 2004.

“I am not recommending anybody in particular. It is up to the President whoever she wants to appoint. What is important is the appointee meets the basic criteria of integrity and competence,” he said.

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