Comelec chief skeptical of hybrid polls in 2016

COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista on Wednesday said that conducting hybrid elections would be the most expensive choice in the coming 2016 national polls.

Bautista, who is the guest in the inaugural “Meet the Inquirer Multimedia” forum, said that it is more expensive than refurbishing existing precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines and even buying new PCOS units.

“Hybrid (system) will be more expensive than both. I think the components (make hybrid polls) more expensive,” Bautista said.

The hybrid system, also known as the Precinct Automated Tallying System (PATaS), combines automated transmission and canvassing and manual counting. In PATaS, voters will manually cast their votes and teachers will manually count the votes. Once the votes have been counted, it will be transmitted to servers using laptops powered with broadband technology.

He said that the requirements to implement PATaS, such as laptops for every precinct and additional manpower to count the votes, would make the process more expensive. It also mandates that each of 300,000 precincts in the country will have closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras so that the manual counting of votes would be monitored.

Bautista also said that the hybrid system has a “cumbersome” process.

The Comelec chair refused to divulge the exact cost of holding hybrid polls, saying that they will give the proponents of the hybrid system the chance to present their figure at a House of Representatives hearing on Thursday.

On his part, Bautista said that refurbishing PCOS machines is the most viable and most cost-effective option. He said that the upgrading of 82,000 PCOS machines would cost between P3 billion to P4 billion while buying new PCOS units will cost about P7.8 billion.

“We want to resurrect the option of refurbishing the PCOS machines because that maybe is the most cost effective solution,” he said.

Weighing its merits, Bautista said that PATaS needs “further improvement.”

“Hybrid has promising features but it’s still raw and needs further improvement. It seems not the most-cost efficient choice as of the moment,” the Comelec chair added.

Last June 27, Comelec conducted a mock election using PATaS but the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) observed that the system caused confusion among voters.

The Comelec chair said that by July 31, the poll body would reveal the mode of voting which will be implemented in the 2016 elections.

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