Watchdog concerned over Comelec decision to bid out supplies

MANILA, Philippines - The election monitoring group Bantay Eleksyon 2013 expressed its concern over the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to bid out various services and supplies needed for the polls among different companies.

Bantay chairman Ramon Casiple said it is not a sound decision to involve many people in the conduct of the 2013 elections because it would expose the political exercise to cheating.

“In the 2010 elections, many of the supplies and services were provided by Smartmatic because it was our first time to automate and Comelec did not know how to use the PCOS machines. But this time around, the Comelec has allowed more companies to take part,” Casiple said, referring to the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines of Smartmatic.

While they agree that not one company should monopolize the election, Casiple said they are worried over the “interface” aspect of the polls.

“What concerns us now is the interface between the people and the machines. The Comelec is now bidding out various aspects of the elections to different companies and this opens the way to fraud. Incompatibility or mismatching is highly possible because different companies are involved and the quality of products may also be compromised,” he said.

In 2010, aside from supplying the PCOS machines, Smartmatic had also provided the ballot boxes, ballot papers, ballot packaging and forwarding services among others.

But for the 2013 polls, the Comelec is bidding out several contracts for the supply of marking pens, toners, batteries, thermal paper, ballot boxes, ballot packaging, compact flashcards, compact flash card worms and warehouse with configuration facilities and services for transmission, delivery of PCOS machines and its paraphernalia, and other services.

Casiple said the situation was even muddled up because the state-run National Printing Office, which was contracted by the Comelec to print the ballots, had also outsourced the services to a private firm.

“It’s really complicated so the interface is one of the aspects that Bantay Eleksyon will be closely monitoring,” he said.

The group will also be pushing for the early release of results of the Random Manual Audit (RMA) in which the results of the automated and manual counting will be compared to check the accuracy of the machines.

“In 2010, the RMA results were released, I think, two months after the election. It was very late, the purpose of the RMA was defeated already. So for 2013, we want the results out shortly after the election,” he said.

Casiple added the group, which was reactivated anew for the 2013 elections, would also be monitoring if the security aspects of the automated election system would be kept next year.

He said they do not want a repeat of the 2010 incident where the built-in readers in the PCOS machines of ultra-violet security markings in the ballot papers were disabled, forcing the Comelec to buy portable readers.

“The UV ink in the ballot papers was very expensive and we also had to buy special machines for that and yet the readers were turned off. We’ll be keeping an eye on the technical side of PCOS,” Casiple said.

Bantay Eleksyon is composed of some 25 election reform advocates.