THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) on Monday postponed the printing of the more than 50 million ballots to be used in the May 9 polls to address an issue that may result in incompatibility between two of the three components of the automated election system (AES).
But Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said the one-week delay in the printing of ballots would not “materially impact” on the general preparations of the poll agency and it would still be able to meet its April 25 printing deadline.
He said the printing of the ballots may start on Monday or Tuesday next week.
“If there’s a delay, it will be in the actual printing of the ballots but we think it will just be a one-week delay,” said Bautista. “It can turn out to be a blessing in disguise because I think we will have more flexibility in designing the ballot face.”
In a press briefing Monday, Denver-based SLI Global Solutions, a third-party IT firm tasked to review the automated election system’s source code, said a problem was found in the consolidation and canvassing system (CCS), which may subsequently affect the election management system (EMS), dubbed the brain of the AES.
The EMS determines the ballot face and voter distribution among precincts.
‘Trusted build’
“What was found was something that affected the common code used in both the EMS and CCS. And so since it affected the common code, another trusted build needs to be done, which we are doing today,” said SLI Global Solutions director of operations Traci Mapps.
A trusted build is the firmware which will be used in the final configuration of the machines and the final design of the ballots.
Election Commissioner Christian Robert Lim explained that the CCS was designed to be a stand-alone system but the way the code was patterned, it appeared that it needed network connection, which will not happen on Election Day.
“There has to be a change to make it a stand-alone system,” said Lim, adding that the changes in the two systems affected the Comelec’s timeline in preparing for the polls.
“But on our part, we want to make sure that the firmware we are going to use is going to work on Election Day. We’d rather take the disruption in the timelines than find out on Election Day that something is wrong,” he said.
He said that if the problem in the CCS was not fixed, there could be problems in the transmission of election results on May 9.