Presidential bets concerned about glitches in counting machines

MANILA, Philippines - A few presidential candidates have expressed their concern over the glitches in the preparations of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 9 elections.

A representative from international certifier SLI Global Solutions reported that 1 or 2 percent of the ballots were rejected by vote-counting machines during a testing held at the Comelec's storage facility in Laguna earlier this week.

The camp of presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe and her running mate Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero asked the Comelec to hold a dialogue to discuss the status of the preparations for the upcoming polls.

"The foregoing appeal is interposed purposely to dispel said negative reports and to affirm that the Comelec is doing its best to ensure that the forthcoming election will be free from technological glitches and other similar irregularities," Poe and Escudero's lawyer George Garcia said.

Garcia said that it is alarming that the Comelec's Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) has not yet released a certification on the accuracy of the counting machines three months before the elections.

Under the Election Modernization Act of 1997, the TEC should have successfully conducted a field testing process not later than three months before the date of the elections.

Vice President Jejomar Binay's United Nationalist Alliance has also expressed concern over glitches in the source codes that cause the malfunction in the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines.

"Dalangin nating lahat na maging mapayapa, matapat, matiwasay at malinis na eleksyon sa darating na Mayo 9--but with the reports of delays, deliberate or not, are a cause for alarm. It seems that someone is already laying the predicate and some do allow these problems to surface to give them enough window to manipulate the elections," UNA Spokesperson Mon Ilagan said.

Ilagan also expressed his hopes that the delays in the printing schedule are not intentional and deliberate so as to delay the elections.

"We hope that these issues and concerns being raised in relation to the delays and glitches will not be used as reasons to allow the Comelec to invoke their power to suspend the polls or force them to go back to manual voting," Ilagan said.

The Comelec is set to hold mock elections on Saturday in 20 cities and towns across the country to improve its procedure at the polling centers during the elections.