It's final: Automated polls to push through

MANILA, Philippines - There is no more legal barrier to the automation of the general elections in May.

Voting 13-2, justices of the Supreme Court (SC) have upheld an earlier ruling on the legality of the P7.2-billion automation contract between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Smartmatic Corp.–Total Information Management (TIM) Inc. consortium.

In its decision, the SC dismissed the appeal of the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) led by UP professor and lawyer Harry Roque Jr. for lack of new substantial argument.

“On the basis of the arguments, past and present, presented by the petitioners, the Court does not find any grave abuse of discretion on the part of Comelec in awarding the automation contract to the joint venture of private respondents,” the 15-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. read.

“With this ruling, any question as to legality of the poll automation contract has been laid to rest,” SC administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez told reporters.

Malacañang was elated by the decision.

“We are happy that the High Court has decided to lift this legal cloud hanging over the automation process, and we hope that no more obstacles remain in the country’s pursuit of a successful automated election,” deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said.

The SC said CCM’s arguments in its motions for reconsideration were a mere rehash of issues already resolved in its ruling on Sept. 10 last year.

The SC has also dismissed as “highly speculative and without evidentiary value” the concern of petitioners over the possibility that the consortium might not be able to set up the required telecommunications facilities stipulated in the contract.

“Surely, a possible breach of a contractual stipulation is not a legal reason to prematurely rescind, much less annul, the contract,” the SC said.

It also described as “untenable” CCM’s use of “unverified news reports” to claim that Smartmatic-TIM has sub-contracted the production of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to Shanghai-based Quisdi.

In its ruling, the SC also junked the interventions of election lawyer Pete Quadra and the Senate through Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Quadra, who died four months ago, had questioned the “auditability” of the results of the automated elections.

But the SC explained that the system to be used is a paper-based system and has a provision for system auditability.

The SC also dismissed CCM’s argument that the Comelec and the consortium violated a provision of the Poll Automation Law on pilot testing of the automation system in the country.

The court took into consideration the position of the Senate that “pilot testing was not a condition precedent to full automation.”

Comelec earlier argued that the term “pilot testing” as used in Section 6 of Republic Act 9369 merely states that for the regular national and local elections, the machines “shall be used in at least two highly urbanized cities and two provinces...”

Absentee voting

Meanwhile, the Comelec has agreed to automate the overseas absentee voting (OAV) in Hong Kong and Singapore following assurances from Smartmatic-TIM that there is still enough time to ensure its smooth implementation, according to Comelec Commissioner Armando Velasco, chair of the Committee on OAV.

The Comelec earlier cancelled plans to automate the elections in Hong Kong, Singapore and Saudi Arabia due to the host governments’ worry of having a huge number of people converging in one place.

“There’s no more objection but they are requesting us for a dialogue. They want to see what this automation is all about. They are very eager to see the mechanics of this automation,” he said.

But the Comelec will have to work double time since OAV begins on April 10 or one month before the actual election on May 10.  

Velasco admitted that the poll body has yet to conduct an education drive on automated election among the voters in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM will send 19 PCOS machines to Hong Kong and seven to Singapore.

Velasco added that due to high interest in the automation system, they expect voter turnout of 50 percent.

In the 2007 midterm polls, voter turnout for OAV was a low 16 percent.

Comelec records show there are 95,000 registered voters in Hong Kong and 31,000 in Singapore. With Sheila Crisostomo