Poll body open to systems audit

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday said it was open to requests from any parties for an audit of the automated election system (AES) as part of a transparent and credible May 9 elections.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista also pointed out that before the elections, all components of the AES had undergone source code review and other reviews by political parties.

“But we’re always open to reasonable requests for information. That is part and parcel of transparency,” Bautista said.

On Tuesday, the camp of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sent a letter to Bautista demanding that it conduct a systems audit within three days to determine the extent of the effect of the supposedly unsanctioned change in the data packet for a transparency server on the night of Election Day.

Lawyer Jose Amor Amorado, who heads Marcos’ Quick-Count Center, went to the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila, to formally request a poll systems audit.

Marcos, in his letter, said the audit must be done in light of doubts that sprung from the “introduction of a new script” to the transparency server.

“The alteration removed the only security feature of the data by causing the hash codes to change. With the tampering of this sole security feature, how can we be assured that the data has not been altered in other ways or on other occasions?” the senator wrote.

 ‘Cosmetic change’

Marcos added: “If a single person can introduce  ‘cosmetic’ changes, how can we be assured that the same person and/or other persons did not introduce substantial alterations to the script and that the data had not been affected just as easily?”

The same argument holds true with regard to the data transmitted to the central server of the Comelec, Marcos said.

“The honorable commission and Smartmatic have not even made public the alteration of data of the transparency server had the same not been discovered and raised publicly by us, how much more of the central server or its data which the political parties and the candidates have no direct access to?” he said.

Marcos wondered whether the transparency server was loaded with an entirely different program that was not presented to the political parties and candidates.

Marcos said his team was willing to sign all confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements that may be required by the Comelec to protect its data security and to preserve all propriety information belonging to it and/or Smartmatic.

Election Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said Marcos could formally write the Comelec en banc about his request.

“Anyway, we are having our own audit and our people are preparing their report to Congress,” she said.

Robredo for audit

Robredo welcomed the call of her closest rival for a system audit but she said she hoped this was not a precursor to any attempt at cheating.

“I am not against a system audit. In fact I’m in favor of it so we can remove all doubt about the integrity of the electoral process,” she told reporters.

“What I’m not OK with is when I am being accused of cheating without any basis,” said the 51-year-old widow of former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

She added that not only Marcos, the son and namesake of the late dictator, would benefit from a system audit, but her own campaign.

Robredo’s team has claimed victory in the tight race with Marcos, saying her lead is mathematically impossible to be surpassed given the number of remaining uncounted votes.

She said her campaign based its calculations on official numbers from the Comelec through its own copy of election returns. These numbers, she said, were consistent with the quick count of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.

Robredo said she feared which direction the Marcos camp intended to take the “script” of unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.

“I hope there’s no attempt at cheating. We know they have a history of that,” she said, referring to the snap elections of 1986.

“What I’m worried about is that even though the numbers are clear, they are conditioning minds otherwise. I don’t know if this is a precursor to something. I hope not,” Robredo said.

Desperate

Romulo Macalintal, lawyer of Robredo, described Marcos’ demand as a desperate move.

“Let the Comelec audit it but that would not prevent the submission of the certificates of canvass (COCs) to Congress and will not prevent it from undertaking its function to canvass the COCs,” Macalintal said.

Congress will convene as a national board of canvassers on

May 23 to tabulate COCs to determine the winner of the presidential and vice presidential races.

Macalintal said the Marcos camp should dig up its own evidence in alleging irregularities or election fraud instead of asking the Comelec to build its information.

“It’s like they are asking the Comelec to get the evidence for them but they should be the one to show evidence that there is something wrong with the Comelec’s system. But if they see nothing wrong, they cannot just give speculations,” he said.