Poll watchdog says it was worse than 2010 elections

The recently concluded 2013 automated elections were worse than the 2010 exercise because of the bigger number of errors and the “arbitrary and highly irregular decisions” which compromised the elections’ credibility and transparency, according to a poll watchdog group.

The Automated Elections Systems Watch (AES Watch) deplored the glitches in the precinct count optical scan machines (PCOS) as well as the software licensing issues that came with it.

“Compared to 2010, there are more data discrepancies as well as open and brazen possible manipulation of data at the stage of canvassing and consolidation,” the group said.

Integrity in doubt

In a press briefing yesterday, AES Watch cited the 44-hour lag in transmission of election returns which it warned may cast doubt on the integrity of the results.

IT expert and panelist Lito Azurin pointed out that even the practice of manual voting also poses risks to the credibility of the elections.

“The ballot, since it is not immediately fed into the PCOS machine, is exposed to post-voting manipulation. The delay in transmission also means that the returns are open to manipulation,” he said.

Azurin noted that as of Friday night, or five days after the elections, 23 percent of election returns had not yet been transmitted.

Metro Manila, for example, has 10 percent untransmitted returns while the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had 44 percent.

More machine glitches

Compared to the 2010 elections, there were more PCOS machine glitches in last Monday’s polls, AES Watch claimed. It noted that delays in transmissions in 2010 took only two days.

The 23 percent of untransmitted election returns affected 8.6 million voters, said panelist Temario Rivera.

More than half, or 911, out of the 1,173 reports to AES Watch were PCOS-related, such as initialization errors, machine breakdowns, hardware problems and rejected ballots, while 1,432 clustered precincts reported transmission problems.

‘Ultra-fast, inflated’ count

The group also cited the “ultra-fast and inflated” count of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) caused by program error, the 44-hour lull at 69 percent transmission of returns, and the absence of random manual audit results up to now.

AES Watch said it had called for 100 percent full random manual audit weeks before the polls to establish the accuracy of the elections, but this was ignored by the Comelec.

The group also took the Comelec to task for its decision to proclaim the winning senatorial candidates after only 20 percent of election returns had been canvassed. It said the poll body’s action was “arbitrary and highly questionable.”

“All these raise the issue of whether the Comelec is not only short-cutting the process but also dictating the results of the election in violation of the people’s right to suffrage,” the group said.

Nelson Celis of the Philippine Computer Society added that before the May 13 elections, they did not see any document that would attest to the accuracy of the 82,000 PCOS machines deployed all over the country.

Although the Comelec held mock elections in July 2012, the accuracy level was at 97 percent, which Celis said was below the 99.995 percent requirement.

“It is poor project management,” he said.

Licensing issues

Dr. Pablo Manalastas cited the software licensing issues of Smartmatic and Dominion. He noted that Dominion, which granted a license to Smartmatic for 2009 to 2014, had canceled this in 2010.

Smartmatic had promised “a perpetual license” to Comelec under the option-to-purchase agreement with the poll body.

“But based on what happened, it would appear that there was no software license for the recent elections. We would be pirating software,” Manalastas said.

He also questioned Smartmatic’s offer of a perpetual license to Comelec even if Smartmatic itself did not have a perpetual license since its license from Dominion was canceled in 2010.

Conspiracy, he says

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Saturday accused AES Watch of being involved in a “conspiracy” to cast doubts on the credibility of the 2013 elections.

Brillantes said he will come out next week with a formal announcement regarding the alleged conspiracy of the AES Watch.

“I will no longer comment. I will be coming officially with a statement regarding AES later. Anytime next week. I’m going to show conspiracy on the part of some people in AES,” Brillantes told reporters.  With a report from Philip C. Tubeza