Press Release
May 31, 2007

PIMENTEL BATS FOR GRADUAL AUTOMATION OF ELECTIONS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today branded as a canard the allegation that he had opposed the computerization of the countrys elections.

Referring to a political advertisement which appeared in some newspapers blaming him and other legislators for the poll automation fiasco, Pimentel said he has always advocated the computerization of elections.

Its not true that I opposed the computerization of the electoral process. As a matter of fact, I authored the bill calling for poll computerization, he said.

How can I object to computerization when I am convinced that this is the best way to speed up the counting of election results and to eliminate cheating?

Pimentel said although he supported the enactment of the new law prescribing an Automated Electoral System, he did not think it could be implemented during the May 14, 2007 national and local elections due to acute time constraints.

He said he believed in the views of information technology and election experts that to insist on the automation of this years mid-term national and local elections would only bring disaster.

The senator from Mindanao also said that automation of the electoral system should be carried out on a gradual basis.

Pimentel said he has been proposing that automation of polls should be implemented first on a pilot basis in a few selected provinces, cities and municipalities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

He cited the experience of Belgium, a country of about 10 million people, which is only 50 percent computerized some 10 years after it started automating the elections.

Pimentel said that since there is already a P2.6 billion earmarked for the automation of elections under the 2007 national budget, Congress and Comelec should look into the possibility of partial computerization of the barangay elections scheduled in October this year.

If the partial computerization of the barangay elections is successful, Pimentel said the Comelec can proceed with the computerization of the national and local elections in 2010.

News Latest News Feed