Hybrid vote count pushed

Comelec logo and VCM, INQUIRER GRAPHICS

Information technology experts on Thursday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to shift to a hybrid form of election system for the next national elections.

National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections president Gus Lagman called the current automated election system a “secret counting” as it is “not transparent to the voters” because poll results were automated and processed by the machine.

“When we automated the precinct counting, we not only made it much easier to cheat, but we made it more difficult to detect cheating,” Lagman told reporters during the Pandesal Forum.

The former Comelec commissioner said the poll body should instead use a hybrid system for the next elections, where a manual ballot count is to be done in precincts and canvassing of votes will be automated. —KATHLEEN DE VILLA