Comelec to 4.3M voters with no biometrics data: Do it now
Reversal possible
Jimenez said the disqualification of Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. from the bidding for optical mark readers (OMRs) could be reversed after the multinational firm managed to address concerns regarding its OMR units.
“That’s certainly a possibility because the basis of the disqualification is one thing and if that one thing is proven not to exist, then why would you disqualify it?” Jimenez said.
Last month, the Comelec bids and awards committee (BAC) disqualified Smartmatic-TIM after its demo machine failed to meet the requirement to have at least two storage devices and the capability to write on the devices all data/files, audit log, statistics and ballot images simultaneously.
Smartmatic-TIM subsequently filed a protest of its disqualification in the post-qualification evaluation stage of the public bidding in the Comelec en banc.
Article continues after this advertisementMachine demo
Article continues after this advertisementThe second round of public bidding for the 23,000 OMR machines became necessary after Smartmatic-TIM’s bid was disqualified, thereby resulting in a failed bidding.
On Tuesday, Smartmatic-TIM held a demonstration of its machine at the Comelec. Personnel of the firm opened the machine, ran a ballot through it and saved the data while showing the behavior of the secure digital memory cards in the ports.
“We were able to show that at any given point, all the transactions in the machines that we are proposing to the Comelec stored the data simultaneously,” said Cesar Flores, Smartmatic-TIM president for Asia-Pacific.
Flores expressed confidence that the company had convinced the Comelec en banc to reverse BAC’s previous ruling.
Concerns addressed
During the demonstration, Comelec–Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) chair Peter Banzon said the concerns raised regarding the Smartmatic-TIM machines had been addressed.
“This display of simultaneous writing … it satisfies the requirement,” Banzon told members of the commission en banc led by Comelec Chair Andres Bautista.
But despite Banzon’s opinion, Jimenez said it was still up to the commission en banc to decide on the fate of Smartmatic-TIM’s protest.
Jimenez said the second round of public bidding for the P2.5-billion project would push through.
Hybrid system
The Comelec is considering a hybrid system as an option for the elections next year.
Former Comelec Commissioner Gus Lagman proposed a hybrid system called precinct automated tallying system in which the counting of votes is done manually and projected on a large screen for the public to see before transmission of the count.
Lagman said this was a better and cheaper way than Smartmatic’s precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines used in the previous elections.
More expensive
But Smartmatic said the hybrid method was not cheaper than automated elections. “First fact is that they’re going to have to triple the number of precincts so from around 80,000 precincts, which you are currently using, you’re going to have around 250,00 precincts,” Flores said at a media forum on Tuesday.
He added that the government could spend about P12 billion for the salaries of additional inspectors.
“How is that ever cheaper than the machines that have been purchased for P5 million combining the 2010 and 2013 elections?” he said.
“And it’s not really transparent, it is going to create more vulnerabilities going back to the system where the votes can be manipulated by whoever is counting and encoding the votes,” Flores added.
UK Lord Smartmatic chair
Asked what the best bargain was for the Philippines in the upcoming polls, Smartmatic chair Lord Mark Malloch-Brown said the most practical and cost effective way was to refurbish the existing PCOS machines and buy supplementary ones to increase coverage.
READ: Only Smartmatic bought bid documents for new voting machines
After the Supreme Court temporarily stopped the Comelec-Smartmatic repair deal last month, Brown said he hoped the company would still be allowed to maintain its own machines because it had the capacity and the original parts for the units.
“These machines were used for two days during the previous elections and they are considered young and have a lot of life left in them,” he said.
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