MANILA, Philippines—With the poll automation project back on track, Smartmatic International has pledged a dream scenario for the May 2010 national elections.

In an interview with the Inquirer on Friday night, Smartmatic spokesperson Cezar Flores said “over 90 percent” of the election results would be in “within the first six hours after closing time.” He said the voting machines would have “100-percent accuracy,” and that in two or three days, the winners of nationwide contests could be proclaimed.

Flores said election results, as well as information on precincts and numbers of voters, would be transmitted by cellular phone, land line or satellite at the end of voting hours.

“From that point on, there’ll be no more human intervention...,” he said.

Flores said ballot-scanning machines similar to the Comelec’s Precinct Count Optical Scan machines had been used in elections in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and pilot-tested in certain South American countries.

Each machine will have passwords, data encryption and memory and power backups, and will reject fraudulent, tainted, or photocopied ballots, he said.

Since the ballots drop into a ballot box under the scanning machine, these can be counted manually in case of a poll protest.

“In the machine, every ballot that is read is going to be stored … There is a 100-percent audit trail,” Flores said.

“Every machine has its own personality. If the machine is only for a precinct with 800 registered voters, it cannot read more than 800 ballots,” he said.

Pressure

The provisions in the joint-venture agreement between Smartmatic and its local partner, Total Information Management Corp. (TIM), are unchanged despite the earlier rift between the two suppliers of the poll automation project of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Flores said the two firms were abiding by the provisions of the agreement that they submitted to the Comelec for the bidding for the project contract.

But he declined to disclose Smartmatic’s arrangement with TIM, saying Comelec Chair Jose Melo had prohibited them from discussing the matter with the media.

Flores said the two firms had found themselves questioning the project because of the long bidding process and external political pressure, like the planned Senate inquiry into the matter.

‘Blown out of proportion’
“It’s normal that some parties feel pressure and say, ‘Let’s sit down. Does the thing we agreed on still apply today?’ So we sat down and we found that, yes, it still applied. It’s the same project, the same requirements all along,” Flores said.

“We ironed out all those concerns that arose during three long months. We came back to our senses,” he said.

Flores said the problems that Smartmatic and TIM faced in the past week had been “blown out of proportion.”

“Both parties were really concerned about how to make it work, how to make it viable and how to comply with the Comelec’s requirements,” he said.

Smartmatic and TIM are expected to submit their incorporation papers to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The Comelec expects to sign the poll automation contract with the joint-venture firm shortly.

Comelec legal department chief Ferdinand Rafanan said the two firms had agreed to follow the provisions in their joint-venture agreement, including the contentious issues on authority and control.

Under the 18-page agreement, TIM will hold 60 percent of the outstanding capital stock and is entitled to nominate and elect three board members. Smartmatic, which will hold 40 percent of the stock, will have two board members.

All approval of operating and capital expenditure budgets, financial statements and plans, election or removal of top officers, will go through the board of directors. Any action of the company must have the approval of at least three directors, one of whom must be a nominee of TIM and another of Smartmatic.

Each issued check will carry the signatures of a TIM official and a Smartmatic official, Rafanan said.

Still under the agreement, TIM has the right to nominate the company president and CEO, as well as the assistant corporate secretary.

Smartmatic, on the other hand, has the right to nominate the board chair, treasurer and corporate secretary of the joint venture company.

Other responsibilities

Both Smartmatic and TIM “will be jointly and severally liable to the Comelec for the obligations of each,” according to the agreement.

TIM will be in charge of the local support staff, logistics, deployment and manpower, and will help Smartmatic with hardware, software, ballot paper and other consumables.

It will also handle services related to canvassing and transmission.

TIM senior consultant Lamberto Lorenzo said the company would train core engineers and technicians who would remedy malfunctioning machines on the ground.

It will also be in charge of the printing of ballots, the securing of servers, and telecommunications, Lorenzo said.

Smartmatic, on the other hand, will be responsible for the hardware and software of voting machines and systems, and will provide project management expertise.

Under the Comelec’s requirements, Smartmatic will be in charge of the operations because it is the partner with a track record on elections.

TIM and Smartmatic started exploring the possibility of forming a partnership to bid for the 2010 polls a year and a half ago, Flores said.

Smartmatic initially wanted to partner with TIM for the August 2008 computerized elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, but at that time TIM was involved with another election firm.

Flores said TIM “understands technology,” has a “good reputation,” and linkages with information technology providers.

But for all that, Sen. Edgardo Angara on Saturday sought an explanation of how exactly the Comelec, TIM and Smartmatic came to an agreement on the poll automation project.

Transparency

“Transparency is what this country needs and an automated election is the way to ensure our citizens that their votes will be protected and will be counted in appointing the next leaders of the country,” Angara said in a statement.

The senator was reacting to Melo’s announcement after a closed-door meeting on Friday that the two firms had settled their differences, and that a closer look at their feud might raise new animosities.

“Whatever internal arrangement they have, that’s between them. Don’t scrutinize it anymore. If you keep asking about it, it may open old wounds,” Melo had said.

As chair of the Senate finance committee, Angara sponsored the P11.3-billion supplemental budget passed by Congress in March to fully automate the 2010 elections.

Now that the poll automation project is back on track, Angara said, all necessary preparations should be conducted for transparent and honest elections.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan made a similar call to the Comelec and the winning bidders.

On the other hand, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines is pleased that Smartmatic and TIM had come to an agreement.

“We are happy with the development,” the CBCP media director, Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, was quoted as saying in its news website.

Quitorio indicated that the Comelec should make up for lost time in ensuring the integrity of the 2010 polls.

Not money

On radio dwIZ, Sen. Richard Gordon said it was not a quarrel over money that had nearly caused the collapse of the poll automation project.

“Not money but [the assignment of] liability,” Gordon said, adding that TIM was worried that although it had a small exposure in the joint venture with Smartmatic, it would be exposed to criminal liabilities should the project fail.

Gordon said TIM lawyer Boy de Borja, a classmate of his at the Ateneo de Manila University, had phoned him after receiving a summons from the Senate blue ribbon committee chaired by the senator. With a report from Norman Bordadora