Lawmakers snub Smartmatic demonstration

MANILA, Philippines - Legislators snubbed yesterday the demonstration of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines by leading bidder Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila.

Among members of the Senate and the House of Representatives Oversight Committees on Electoral Reforms, only Sen. Mar Roxas sent representatives to observe the demonstration.

Comelec-Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) head Ferdinand Rafanan said they invited committee members, particularly chairmen Sen. Francisco Escudero and Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., to witness the demonstration.

“We would have highly appreciated their presence, but we won’t really demand that they come. Our invitation is direct from the heart,” Rafanan said.

Smartmatic-TIM held an end-to-end demonstration of their PCOS machines as part of the post-qualification stage of the bidding process.

Machines have been simulated from voting, counting, canvassing and transmission.

But the demonstration briefly stopped after one of the machines emitted smoke in the afternoon. It resumed after some troubleshooting.

A Smartmatic-TIM representative claimed that the cable they used to connect the machine to the battery was thin, causing a short circuit.

A Comelec technician who checked the connection concluded that bigger wires should have been used to link the big battery.

Rafanan appeared satisfied with the outcome. “It’s part of the testing,” he said.

During the demonstration, the representative noted they intend to use the GPRS facilities of Globe Telecom and Smart in transmitting the election returns from the polling precincts to the municipal, provincial, and Comelec central office.

The representative added that in case these facilities are not available in a certain place, the consortium can use landlines or satellite in its transmission.

“We’ll be doing a sight survey of all areas before the elections to determine telecommunication coverage there,” he said.

He assured the Comelec that the machines would not have USB drive, allaying fears that simply uploading other software or program using USB could easily alter its program.

SBAC and the Comelec’s technical working group are currently testing the machines for security, accuracy and power reserves, among other aspects.

Rafanan said the machines have already hurdled 23 of the 26 criteria set by the SBAC.

“We have just seen that the machine has transmission, consolidation and canvassing capabilities... The machine has been separated from any electrical power as of 10:45 a.m. (yesterday) and it ends 10:45 p.m. (last night). We’ll see if it can last that long on batteries,” he added.

The SBAC will also investigate news reports and circulating text and e-mail messages against Smartmatic.

The firm allegedly does not own the patent of the technology that it will use in the election.

The United States government also accused Smartmatic of rigging the 2004 Venezuelan election in favor of President Hugo Chavez. 

The firm’s main office is in the Netherlands but it has a branch in Venezuela.

The company will also allegedly use a satellite system in transmitting election results that can easily be intercepted.

“Whether they are indeed true or not, we will look into them,” Rafanan said. – Sheila Crisostomo