Manual polls won’t be easy, says Comelec

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

BAGUIO CITY—It will be very difficult to return to manual elections in the 2013 mid-term elections if groups questioning the Commission on Election’s plan to buy the automated counting machines is upheld by the courts, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Wednesday.

Still, the poll body will accept other options to help it keep to its schedule to prepare for the 2013 elections, Brillantes  told reporters here Wednesday.

“Everything is possible but it is very difficult to go back to manual elections… We will not dream of going back to manual elections no matter what,” he said.

Three petitions by various groups, including the Automated Election System (AES) Watch, urged the Supreme Court on Monday to invalidate a P1.8-billion supply contract with Smartmatic Corp. to purchase the automated voting machines that were used in the 2010 elections.

The complainant groups said the contract had violated bidding rules.

Brillantes arrived here Wednesday to preside at a Comelec en banc session Thursday, although the body will not tackle the supply deal involving the 80,000 precinct count optical scanners (PCOS), now that the issue has reached the courts.