MANILA, Philippines – On the eve of D-Day, the Commission on Elections or Comelec is assuring voters of a successful national election as they troop to the polls Monday, May 9.
(READ: Guide to the 2016 Philippine elections)
Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon told Rappler Sunday, May 8, they are ready for the country’s third automated elections – from human personnel down to the machines.
“I’m optimistic. Yes, it will be successful,” Guanzon said, specifically referring to the voting process. “There will be no failed election.”
There has been a lot of noise on social media in the election season’s final stretch as netizens and voters continued to cast doubt over the possibility of clean elections. Posts about alleged election fraud involving voting machines have been rampant on social media. (READ: Where to get real-time elections results)
Guanzon, however, countered that cheating through the machines is “very impossible.”
“Cheated by the machines? Very impossible,” she said, addressing particularly the concern over votes not being counted.
Transmission issues
“Some people are saying that there’s a way to transmit the votes, intercept the transmission, add and minus to some candidates – but that’s virtually impossible. Why? Because the transmission space when the teacher transmits the results, that Internet space opens only for two minutes. After two minutes it will close. It’s just two minutes enough for us to transmit the results from that machine and then it will close.” (READ: How does the Philippine automated election system work?)
As posts about foiled ballots circulate on social media, Guanzon also said voters are allowed a second – and final – chance to cast their votes again in the event that their first ballots are not picked up by the machine.
“We decided on replacement ballot. Say for example your ballot won’t feed into the machine for some reason and it’s not your fault, the board of election inspectors or BEI will give you another ballot but you’re only allowed one more ballot,” she explained. “And if it’s their bad luck that it still won’t (go through), because it’s crumpled or what then that’s it.”
Asked whether there are possible scenarios where cheaters may succeed in tampering with the machines, Guanzon explained: “For one thing, the SD cards, it won’t work if it’s not configured for that machine. So they must have had access to our configuration codes or wherever. And I don’t think they can do that because our people were sequestered. And it’s not just one person.” (READ: How to vote on May 9)
She added, “They’re not supposed to leave the place, they’re housed in the place and they’re scattered. You’ll have to kidnap 30 people to get this copy of the code that will configure the SD card.”
“It’s too much work. All the SD cards are already there. So we had to make sure that the chain of custody – as in criminal law of chain of custody – of the machines and the SD cards is very tight.”
‘We are ready’
In the homestretch, Guanzon said the Comelec is merely waiting for voters to come in.
“Yes, we are ready. All the VCMs have been delivered. They’re now at the hubs. They’re now at the precincts. All the ballots are already ready as of Friday,” Guanzon said. “They’re with the municipal and city treasurers. You have to give it to the election officers because they bring the VCMs, ballots, batteries, and everything by any means they can.”
“You can’t really prepare for all eventualities. But in terms of delivery of everything that we need, we’re a 10,” Guanzon added.
Part of the Comelec’s preparations include anticipating eventualities from determining “problematic” areas to machines failing to start up. (READ: Voting hours on May 9: from 6 am to 5 pm)
According to Guanzon, the Comelec identified certain areas where “there are private armed groups or there are New People’s Army that can probably use violence and threats to stall or delay or stop the elections.”
To prepare, those areas have been put under “Comelec control” which means they can supervise the release of disbursement of funds there, and “there will be very visible military and police presence under the supervision of our election officer or our provincial election supervisors.”
Where there are threats that have sown fear among teachers, as in past elections, there will be police trainees ready to take over.
As for the possibility of machine failure, Guanzon gave assurances there will be back-up machines in the precinct or within the vicinity.
In cases where voters have complaints, she explained the procedure that must be followed. (READ: EXPLAINER: Can voters be jailed for taking voting receipts out of precincts?)
“If you have a complaint that it doesn’t match your vote, the voter is supposed to sign at the back of the receipt and complain to the board of election inspectors and they will write it down in the minutes and they will segregate your voter’s receipt,” she explained.
This way, the complaint can go all the way up to the Comelec’s central office and be used in the event a candidate files a protest.
Guanzon added for that all protests, “the best evidence is the ballot” is not the voter’s receipts. – Rappler.com
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.