Comelec asks Congress for budget to replace all PCOS machines

Precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines –The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is asking for a higher budget in 2015 for it to purchase new precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the 2016 elections.

During Monday’s hearing before the committee on suffrage and electoral reforms at the House of Representatives, Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes said it’s about time to replace all 82,000 ballot-reading machines supplied by Smartmatic to the Comelec.

He said they would request at least P18 billion for the agency’s budget for the 2016 automated elections. Of this, P10.96 billion will be needed for the purchase of 121,800 brand new PCOS units.

“It will take fewer risks in 2016 by using brand new instead of using old ones. Of course new machines are better than old ones,” Brillantes said in Filipino.

Defective PCOS machines have been seen as a cause of delays in elections transmission, and have even been suspected as being behind alleged elections tampering.

The additional PCOS units would lower the ratio of voters per precinct to 600, from 1,000 in the previous elections.

Brillantes said they are not discounting the possibility of using some of the old units instead of replacing all, or re-use them all for the next elections, depending on the allotted budget.

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