“The postponement of the May 9 elections is totally unacceptable,” said poll watchdog Kontra Daya convenor Prof. Danilo Arao.
Kontra Daya trooped to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in Intramuros on May 15 to protest the recent pronouncements of the poll body and foreign firm Smartmatic that the May 9 elections should be postponed or it may fail.
On March 8, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the COMELEC to activate the printing of receipts of the vote counting machines (VCMs).
COMELEC filed a motion for reconsideration before the high tribunal, asking for a reversal of the decision.
COMELEC suggested that polls be moved to June 9 for them to be able to comply with the ruling.
“The vote verification method of printing receipts is one of the indicators of transparency in the upcoming elections. It is a form of check and balance. If a candidate decides to complain of electoral fraud, he may challenge the automated count with a manual count using the printed receipts,” added Prof. Arao.
COMELEC Chairman Andres Bautista said in an interview by DZBB that the voting could take up 7 to 20 hours once the vote verification measure is enabled.
Information Technology expert and Kontra Daya Convenor Mark Joseph Yanto disputed this.
“It is simply a matter of activating a feature that is already built in the voting machines. Smartmatic has shown this capability in past public discussions,” said Yanto.
Kontra Daya also called on all political parties to reject COMELEC’s election delay threats and support calls for transparency in the elections.
The group also noted that a delay in the elections would only benefit the incumbent who will surely avail of the resources of government to further their electoral agenda.
Yanto warned that foreign-controlled automated election system sold by Smartmatic does not guarantee that votes will be properly recorded and counted. He shared observations in the past 2013 elections that the machines are prone to failure as only 70-80% of the total votes were successfully transmitted.
Despite widespread reports of fraud in the past 2010 and 2013 elections, Smartmatic managed to win the P1.7-billion contract to lease 94,000 VCMs in the upcoming 2016 May polls.
