Reuse of PCOS machines in 2013 polls backed

MANILA, Philippines - The glitches in the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines did not affect the accuracy of the 2010 elections, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said yesterday.

Macalintal yesterday said those who claimed that the machines had defects or could be manipulated “have not shown any concrete, real or material evidence to prove that the results of the 2010 polls were manipulated, cheated or rigged.”

“This is the reason why no election protest involving the 2010 elections had been successfully pursued at the Comelec (Commission on Elections) where, in case of conflict among the parties involved, the picture images of the ballots were decrypted or decoded which showed the images of these ballots when they were prepared by the voters at the precinct level,” he said.

Macalintal said it means that fraud was done not through the PCOS machines. He said “man-made irregularities were perpetuated after the voting by election shenanigans of manual voting vintage.”

“The only way by which PCOS results could be manipulated or cheated is when there is actual terrorism or violence inside a particular precinct or area where the ballots are prepared by armed men who fed them into the PCOS machines. But this does not only happen in an automated election but also in any form of election, be it manual or automated,” he said.

Macalintal said the defects in the PCOS machines are similar to the “formal defects” found during manual elections on the election returns or certificates of canvass, such as the lack of signatures of thumb marks of the watchers or members of the Board of Election Inspectors and lack of paper seals.

Instead of finding fault with the 2010 elections, Macalintal said “all stakeholders should focus on how these glitches or defects in the PCOS machines could be avoided or corrected.”

“Unless their claim of PCOS defects could be proven with precision that they could affect the results of the elections, it is the responsibility of those election experts in information technology to encourage the electorate to trust our electoral system instead of sowing fear that the 2013 elections will be marred with such unfounded claim of fraud and irregularities,” he said.