The Commission on Elections’ vote-counting machines still lack safeguards to accurately count votes, an election watchdog group said on Sunday.
Kontra Daya, a broad alliance of advocates of clean and honest elections, expressed apprehensions about the glitches in the vote-counting machines used in Comelec’s nationwide mock elections in 20 locations last Feb. 13.
Rick Bahague, an information technology expert and Kontra Daya convenor, said he is worried Comelec may not be able to secure the votes cast on May 9.
“Present enhancements on the vote-counting machines are still sorely lacking in basic safeguards to ensure accurate vote recording and counting,” he said.
He said he personally participated in one of the mock polls.
“After taking part in the mock polls in Barangay Pag-asa Elementary School and Ramon Magsaysay Elementary School, we are still not assured that our votes are counted accurately by this vote-counting machine.”
According to Kontra Daya, verification was still missing since the votes cast shown on the machine screen and a print-out of the confirmation receipt were “conspicuously” absent.
The new machines can now print out system hash codes as part of the initialization report that is printed out when a voting precinct opens.
The printed hash, however, cannot be compared with the published hash of the source code available from the Comelec website.
“This is because only the hash of the archive or zipped source code is available online,” Kontra Daya said in a statement.
“In Aklan, Kontra Daya monitors reported that 11 ballots out of a total 66 were rejected. If not addressed satisfactorily, ballot rejection could lead to massive disenfranchisement,” the election watchdog said.
But Comelec chairman Andres Bautista described as “good” the outcome of the mock polls held on Saturday, saying majority of the vote-counting machines were able to transmit the results to the central server in their warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
Bautista revealed that of the 40 clustered precincts that participated in the mock elections, 37 were able to successfully transmit the results after voting ended at 12 noon.
“What happened was good. Out of the 38 precincts that closed on 12 noon, 37 were able to transmit the results within two hours. That’s a good omen for us,” the Comelec chairman said in an interview.
Nonetheless, the Comelec official noted that besides transmission, they were also able to identify other problems during the end-to-end simulation of the entire voting process.
These include the proper shading of the ovals in the official ballots, the correct placing of signatures by members of the Board of Election Inspectors and the proper way to feed the ballots into the machines.
“It was a good learning experience. At least, we can already see what are the things we still need to fix, like, in terms of voter education,” Bautista said.
According to him, the low turnout among mock election participants in several areas was also due to insufficient information dissemination on the activity.
The Comelec is considering the possibility of holding another mock election before May, he said.
Meanwhile, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. expressed disappointment over the technical glitches in the mock polls.
Marcos said the poll body should vigorously move to correct all technical glitches in the automated elections system and make sure they are solved at least a month before the May 9 elections.
“We are quite disappointed that the Comelec has not been able to streamline their operation and every step of the way, there seem to be problems,” said Marcos.
Marcos earlier said the glitches in the automated election system are a major concern for all candidates.
In Malacanang, a presidential spokesman said the mock elections are beneficial for both the voters and Comelec,.
“The voters experienced a simulation of the actual situation in the polling place and learned more about the process of casting their ballots,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., during an interview over state-run radio station dzRB.
