Poll uncertainties give Boto Patrollers more reasons to be vigilant

MANILA, Philippines - It can only be seen as potentially the most disappointing and anticlimactic ending to what has been an exciting year of arguments for and against the automated elections. Things came to a head Monday when, from various places in the Philippines, separate reports came out about the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines going berserk, seeming to have minds of their own, misreading ballots, and turning out bizarre test results.

 Boto Patrollers reported this kind of incidents from Barangay San Antonio Village in Makati, Tunasan in Muntinlupa, Lipa and Santo Tomas in Batangas, Looc in Occidental Mindoro, Santa Cruz in Occidental Mindoro, and the Pilar Elementary School and Las Pinas East National High School. ABS-CBN journalists on the ground did an excellent job taking patches of reports from many places and weaving the incidents to paint the bigger picture of confusion that the debacle created.

The problem over what would later be attributed to faulty programming of the compact flash memory cards of the PCOS machines brought an already giddy electorate to the edge of its seat, with the prospect of the country’s first automated election all of a sudden dimming. Taunting already taut nerves were pronouncements, incidentally, from Palace officials about the wisdom of postponing a constitutionally-mandated May 10, 2010 elections. By Wednesday, the Commission on Elections held another of its press conferences with Smartmatic, the lucky company that bagged the biggest contract for the automation of the Philippines’ elections.

Assurances from the good-looking boys of Comelec and Smartmatic were hardly enough to assure a nervous nation. Yet, their statements were apparently enough to make Palace officials balk at earlier pronouncements about postponement.

 Where do things stand now?

The nation waits with bated breath a promise from Comelec and Smartmatic to re-program and deliver 76,000 compact flash cards in time for a new round of PCOS machine tests May 7. People have more reason to doubt than trust the duo. This perception is probably particularly unfair to the hard-working men and women of the Comelec. But that’s the way it is right now. You fail on the small things like deadlines, then you fail on the big things like those compact flash cards that all automation critics have been warning against from Day One — what else would you expect?

Comelec has missed out on practically all self-imposed deadlines within the election timeline. It celebrated when it finished printing ballots days ahead of schedule. But is it not these ballots that those counting machines are finding hard to read?

The only thing we are certain of right now is that there is nothing certain. Anything can happen. It could be anybody’s ball game between now and May 10 — unless elections actually do happen.

Members of the Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo: Ako ang Simula have been primed for the May 10, 2010 elections, as the citizen journalism movement of ABS-CBN started the trek towards Election Day a full year before. Last Monday’s events shook things and gave very serious indication that not everything may turn out to be what everyone, including BMPM, has prepared for.

 For this reason, BMPM calls on all Boto Patrollers and the public to be even more vigilant, and to continue the task of monitoring pre-election events. Before Monday’s compact flash episode, Boto Patrollers had at least a thousand and one reasons to share stories, pictures and videos from their communities — all of these reasons relating to the importance of citizen participation in guarding and strengthening democracy. The uncertainty of whether we will actually march to polling precincts Monday and have automated elections just gave us one more reason.

 Patrollers can submit reports by emailing a message to [email protected], by texting iREPORT<space>names, address, gender, age, followed by the report to 2366, by calling  (02) 411-BMPM and leaving a voicemail, and by uploading stories to bmpm.abs-cbnnews.com.