MANILA, Philippines?A newly formed poll watchdog has given the Commission on Elections (Comelec) a rating of ?danger? on the agency?s preparedness and trustworthiness to conduct the country?s first automated elections in May.

Automated Election Watch, or AES Watch (pronounced ?eyes watch?), is an independent citizens? group composed of academics, IT professionals and other experts.

It was formed in October 2009 by more than 200 signatories to a petition seeking the release of the source code for the automated elections.

Convenors include the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, UPAA, National Secretariat for Social Action-Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines, Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Solidarity Philippines, Concerned Citizens Movement and Ecumenical Bishops Forum.

On Monday, it released its ?STAR? scorecard which stands for System Trustworthiness, Accountability and Readiness.

?Overall the ratings revealed the Comelec is in the danger zone in its preparations for the May 10 automated elections,? the group said in a press conference at Club Filipino in San Juan City.

AES Watch rated the Comelec on 20 concerns, including the quality and physical security of the poll machines, the release of the source code for review, the training of teachers, the education of stakeholders including voters, and contingency plans.

The group said the Comelec failed in one category?the source code. It said the agency failed to make the source code?or the human-readable version of the software?available to the parties concerned for review.

The Comelec also received a ?warning? rating on 11 items, a ?danger? on eight, and a zero passing grade.

The AES Watch group that conducted the review included University of the Philippines Alumni Association president Alfredo Pascual, Ateneo de Manila University IT professor Pablo Manalastas and Lito Averia, president of Philippine Computer Emergency Response.

?Less than four months before the elections, the Comelec has not shown us a convincing case it is ready to conduct trustworthy automated elections,? Pascual said.

He said their review of the preparatory stage of the polls revealed ?several technical vulnerabilities? that put in question the reliability of the election results.

He noted the Comelec had to push back its timetable six times.

?Already reports from the ground show that most likely the elections cannot be fully automated and that manual voting would have to take place in some areas,? Pascual said.

Manalastas said that as of Jan. 9, supplier Smartmatic-TIM had delivered less than 20 percent of the machines which ?still need to be configured, tested and certified.?

The Comelec received ?danger? ratings in voter education and the training of teachers after AES Watch cited studies that showed 60 percent of voters had little or no knowledge about automated elections.

?Majority of the voters have yet to fully understand the workings of automated elections and their implications on voters? rights,? Pascual said.

Manalastas said poll rigging could also occur. ?Automated or not, powerful fraud mechanisms are still intact, and today they?re looking at the system [to see] how to go about it,? he said.

He said vote rigging could occur through ?prepared ballots.?