MANILA, Philippines—Two election stakeholders have urged Congress to allocate the poll automation budget they have been seeking before January, otherwise there might not be computerized elections in 2010.

Election Commissioner Rene Sarmiento and Henrietta de Villa, National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) chair, said Tuesday they hoped Congress would release the P21 billion they had requested before the legislature goes on holiday recess next week.

Sarmiento and De Villa said failure by Congress to pass a supplemental budget for poll automation in the proposed General Appropriations Act of 2009 would place the computerization of the 2010 elections in jeopardy as the Commission on Elections would not be able to buy or lease voting machines.

“If there is no budget, we will have to use manual voting,” said Sarmiento in a press conference after the launch of the Comelec’s youth registration program.

Sarmiento said the Senate and House were deliberating the 2009 national budget in the bicameral committee, in the penultimate step before it is presented to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for signing into law.

“Let us pressure Congress to give the Comelec the budget. If they don’t give it by January or February, the Comelec, even if it is ready, will not be able to hold automated elections,” De Villa said.

“It would be a shame because we already conducted automated elections in ARMM [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao],” she added, referring to last August’s polls in the special southern region.

If Congress finds the P21-billion price tag too steep, the Comelec could try to work with P13 to P15 billion, Sarmiento said.

The Comelec should have the money by January so it could set the bidding for the voting and counting machines, he said.

As for suggestions that some legislators were reluctant to allot funds for automation to have a reason for postponing the 2010 elections to make way for Charter change through a constituent assembly, “we cannot speculate on that,” Sarmiento said.

But Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said money for automation would not be a problem because it could be sourced from other government agencies.

‘Faster than manual’

He said the Comelec was more concerned about the administration’s commitment to automating the 2010 elections.

“The money can be sourced ... the bigger problem, if ever, is the commitment to hold automated elections” he said.

But, “we still see the commitment for the automated elections,” he quickly added.

Jimenez said the idea of computerized polls had “captured the public’s imagination.”

It was also proven, with the ARMM elections, that it was faster than manual counting which is the usual practice, he said.

“Even the people in power would have to acknowledge that and they will have to acknowledge that if we backtrack from this promise, from this commitment, for a very small reason like no one wants to give us the funds, it will be problematic not just for us but for the people who control the funds,” Jimenez said.