Palace vows clean 2004 polls

Malacañang yesterday dismissed reports of possible data disk switching as a means of poll fraud during the country’s first-ever automated elections in May.

Presidential Deputy Spokesman Ricardo Saludo said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now implementing the necessary measures to ensure a peaceful and fraud-free computerized elections.

Saludo said the Comelec’s decision to accredit the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) as poll watchdog would also help prevent possible cheating in the coming polls.

"As the poll body’s citizen’s arm, Namfrel would be coming out with results of the elections based on data coming from poll precincts, so it would be impossible to change that," Saludo said in a radio interview.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel has warned of possible data disk switching and snatching as a result of the maiden run of the country’s computerized election system.

"The Comelec’s decision to automate the elections has opened the door to an easier dagdag-bawas (add-subtract) operation," Pimentel said, noting that the disks containing tabulation results can easily be transferred from the automated counting machines (ACMs) to transmission machines.

However, Saludo said disk switching is highly improbable, because of the Namfrel’s quick count and all the measures being taken by the Comelec to prevent poll fraud. — Mayen Jaymalin