At least two major poll watchdogs have allayed fears and anxieties over potential irregularities in the May 9 elections triggered by allegations of “data breach” in the automation systems.
The Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) said on Saturday the public need not worry about the supposed data breach in the pre-election operations of Smartmatic, as the details on the extent of the possible “infringement” have not yet been sorted out.
“At present, the public should not worry, but there should be transparency on the matter,” LENTE executive director lawyer Rona Ann Caritos said in a radio interview.
Smartmatic is the biggest software contractor for the Commission on Elections’ automated elections for the May 9 polls.
On Thursday, Sen. Imee Marcos, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms, claimed there was an “infringement” into Smartmatic operations.
The Comelec, however, said its automated election system was not hacked, despite allegations of a security breach.
Meanwhile, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said the data supposedly compromised because of the alleged breach were largely unrelated to the 2022 elections.
Dr. Arwin Serrano, PPCRV director for Voter Education, told ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo that based on information collated since the alleged breach happened in January, the compromised data was from past elections.
On the other hand, the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) called for the manual counting of votes at precincts and other adjustments to ensure transparency in the upcoming May 2022 elections.
Even though the manual counting of votes could take up to a day to finish, Namfrel president Gus Lagman said such a conduct would dispel doubts about the results of the elections.
He added that the final testing and sealing of vote counting machines should be done three days before the election, not the current standard of one week.
The Namfrel president said this would minimize chances that the machines would be tampered with.