Opposition welcomes poll automation

CEBU, Philippines – Former Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia and other opposition leaders in Cebu welcomed the signing of the contract between the Commission on Elections and the joint venture firm for the implementation of the full automation of the counting of the results in next year’s elections.

But while Garcia welcomed the latest development, he did not assure that it will make him run for any elective position in Cebu City because he said the proposed electronic counting of election results is not yet final.

“Aw kon ma-final na g’yod nga electronics na ang counting sa botos, anha pa ko mohukom kon maayo ba nga molansar pagbalik og pwesto sa kagamhanan,” Garcia said yesterday.

After he lost for the second time to Mayor Tomas Osmeña in 2004 elections, Garcia promised not to run again for whatever political post unless if the counting of votes will be fully automated.

Businessman Jonathan Guardo who already announced his intention to run as congressman of the city’s south district in the next year’s elections, said manual election “scares Alvin to death” because he was allegedly cheated by Osmeña.

Guardo said he welcomes the latest development because he believes cheating will be minimized if the counting of votes will be fully automated.

“At least with poll automation, it levels the playing field. It gives fair chance to everybody. The problem with manual elections is that it can be easily manipulated, cheating is rampant,” Guardo said.

But for acting city Mayor Michael Rama, with or without electronic counting machines, he has already decided to run for the city’s top elective position.

Comelec chairman Jose Melo and the officials of Smartmatic International Corporation, and Total Information Management signed on Friday the P7.2-billion automation contract signaling the start of full-blast preparations for computerized polls in 2010.

Garcia said while the signing of the contract was already done, there is still a threat that the electronic counting of votes will not push through once the Supreme Court will issue a temporary restraining order based on the petition filed by the Concerned Citizens Movement led by lawyer Harry Roque.

The budget earmarked for the automation of the May 10, 2010 local and national polls was P11.2 billion but the bid offer of Smartmatic-TIM was only P7.2 billion.

The Comelec quickly issued a notice to proceed to the joint venture corporation so Smartmatic-TIM can already start building 82,200 optical scan machines in Smartmatic’s plant in Taiwan.

A machine will be installed in each precinct for the election.

Since the manufacturer can make about 2,000 machines everyday, it is expected that the joint venture firm will have to start delivering the machines from November to January next year. — Rene U. Borromeo/BRP (THE FREEMAN)