MANILA— An international election monitor raised concerns yesterday over the Philippines’ first nationwide automated election and recommended early preparations in case of a system breakdown during the May 10 balloting.
The Commission on Elections should make a major effort to boost public confidence in the new system, which promises to speed up the counting of votes, the US-based National Democratic Institute said.
The commission has not yet provided a legally required contingency plan to political parties and candidates in case the automated system breaks down, it said.
A five-member delegation from the National Democratic Institute, including former US congressman Sam Gejdenson and former Irish justice minister Nora Owen, visited the Philippines last week.
“While progress has been made in many areas, concerns remain as to the efficacy of the election preparations, the lack of dialogue between those administering the process and civil society groups committed to effectively monitoring it as well as other areas,” the group said in a statement.
It will be the first time the Philippines will use optical scanning machines to count the votes and transmit them electronically.
The National Democratic Institute’s statement said the proposed sample for a manual audit of the electronic count is too small to make it reliable. It recommended that auditing should focus on a sample of machines rather than precincts.
Under the election law, officials are to manually count the results of votes in one precinct randomly selected in each congressional district and compare them to the electronic count to determine if there are any discrepancies.
Election officials say the electronic process will speed up the previous hand counting of ballots that delayed the proclamation of winners for days or weeks and will greatly minimize if not prevent cheating.
The violence and cheating that characterized previous polls resulted in political instability. President Gloria Arroyo’s 2004 election victory has been sullied by fraud allegations and the opposition has tried to impeach her, while young military officers have launched several coup attempts.
Election commission member Rene Sarmiento said the commission is still waiting for a contingency plan that is being crafted by a group headed by a citizens’ election watchdog. The plan covers incidents such as power outages, breakdown of voting machines, failure in the transmission of results and electronic jamming of the transmissions, he said.
He also said there have been suggestions from various groups monitoring the polls to increase the sample of the manual audit from one to five per district. (AP) FREEMAN NEWS)