MANILA, Philippines?If a machine conks out, it doesn?t mean there?s a glitch.

Duh?

Not all of the counting machines will work perfectly on Election Day, but voters need not worry because officials are prepared to handle the hiccups, according to Smartmatic-TIM Corp. Asia Pacific president Cesar Flores.

At a news conference Monday, Flores angrily denounced newspaper headlines highlighting the cold and damp weather in Hong Kong that momentarily decommissioned two precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines on the second day of the month-long overseas absentee voting.

He said people?s expectations in the conduct of the country?s first nationwide automated elections on May 10 should be tempered.

Flores said he expected 0.3 to 0.5 percent of the PCOS units, or nearly 400 of the 82,200 counting machines to be used in the electronic balloting, to be replaced on Election Day, and that this was ?more or less the standard.?

He said this was the reason that Smartmatic-TIM, the joint venture partner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), had ordered 6,000 spare machines, which constituted 8 percent of the total. The counting machines would be used in 76,000 precincts.

?Machines will break on Election Day, and machines will have to go to contingency procedures and there will be replacements, and there will be cases were no replacements will be available and the BEI (Board of Election Inspectors) will have resort to the next door machines,? Flores said.

?It?s very important that we say these things to the public and we manage the expectations of people. If you?re planning on getting your headlines from machines broken, you?re going to run out of space on your front page on Election Day.?

According to Flores, hiccups could either be a result of hardware failure or operational failure if the paper is inserted incorrectly or some connections are not plugged in.

?Sometimes you?re going to be the unlucky voter that needs to wait one hour for the replacement machine to arrive. But that doesn?t mean the system is not working and that?s not a glitch. As long as you?re expecting it to happen you cannot call it a glitch. And it cannot occupy the headline,? he said.

System is working

Flores also said he was very confident of the backup system in place that had worked in other countries.

?I think the good news is the system is working and the system will work on May 10, but contingencies will happen and the important thing is the Comelec is prepared, Smartmatic is prepared, political parties are getting prepared,? he said.

There are general instructions to the BEIs in case machines break, and there is a call center that would put them in touch with technicians, Flores said.

?There can be no failure of election if people are voting. If ballots are there and people are voting and those votes can be counted there can be no failure,? he said.

Election Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal also said at the news conference that the Comelec would apply the lessons learned from the Hong Kong balloting. This include the proper storage of the ballots, some of which were not read by the machines after they were stored in an air-conditioned room.

?It was good that it happened. It showed us scenarios that could happen in the Philippines. Even in Hong Kong, steps are taken, meaning there is no more moisture in the room,? he said.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the election paraphernalia would already be at each polling precinct seven days before the elections. This means that the materials would have acclimatized on the day of the balloting.

HK a good test

Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza Monday said that the glitches in Hong Kong had given the Comelec the chance to test the machines to make sure that they are ?100 percent efficient? for the ?much bigger exercise? on May 10.

?It?s a good test actually, good experiment,? Mendoza told reporters shortly after sending off President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who left for Washington.

?We?re hopeful that the whole point here is to take the cue from early success and continue to work for success, instead of obsessing about failure,? he added.

Skeptical

But Sen. Francis Escudero remained skeptical.

?The Comelec and Smartmatic have been passing the buck about disclosing their protocols on what they will do in case machines break down. How are they going to handle the spare machines, who will get the replacements from the assigned warehouse to the polling precinct?? Escudero said in a statement.

Escudero, who chairs the joint congressional oversight committee on poll automation, said the Comelec seemed to work on a case-to-case basis in addressing foreseen problems.

?There is really no black and white code of rules to follow for contingency measures. Comelec it seems is also blind about what measures Smartmatic has put in place to respond to technical and logistical problems come Election Day,? he said.

?This is an election process where the conduct is totally contracted out to a private entity,? he added.

In Iloilo City, the poll watchdog Kontra Daya described as ?disturbing and alarming? the voting glitches in Hong Kong ?in ideal conditions.?

?What will happen if the machines were used on rural and other remotes areas in the Philippines which may be colder or more humid than in Hong Kong?? the group asked. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño and Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas