COTABATO CITY, Philippines -- Automated elections would be the only way to prevent election fraud in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Elections Commissioner Elias Yusoph said on Friday.

Yusoph, an appointee of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, issued the statement even as the fate of the automated election hanged in the balance due to the disagreement between technology firms Smartmatic and Total Information Management Corp., whose partnership won the bidding for the P7.2-billion automation project for the 2010 elections.

"This is something that all of us must pursue in order to come up with a truly clean, honest and swift election result," he said.

Yusoph said the full automation of the elections would end public suspicion about rigged results -- especially in the five provinces of the region.

"We can do it and we will do it," Yusoph said of the poll body's goal to have the 2010 elections automated.

In the past, the results of the elections in the ARMM always came under question as some national candidates, who did poorly in other areas of the country, topped the polls there.

He said it was surprising that the Philippines could not put in place an automated system when other countries with larger population had long computerized their elections.

"If India, which has over 740 million voters, has its own automated elections, why can't we have it here?," Yusoph said. The Philippines has a population of 90 million.

"Once the automation project of the government is in place, we can be assured of an honest to goodness conduct of the 2010 elections, free of manipulation and the so-called dagdag-bawas (vote padding and shaving) scheme," he said.

Yusoph also urged fellow Muslims "to live up to the teachings of their religion."

He said God-fearing voters and politicians would not commit fraud as such would be similar to deceiving God.