Mayor Tom: Poll automation will not stop cheaters

CEBU, Philippines - The automation of the elections will not be an assurance that there would be no more cheating.

This was the statement of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who said that cheating can still happen if corrupt officials of the Commission of Elections will connive with the candidates.

“You know why, sa lugar nga hinay ka unya duna kay connection sa Comelec, i-cross lang ang wire, exchange vote. Those are my apprehension with the electronic counting,” the mayor said yesterday.

But Osmeña said he is not actually against to the proposed automation saying “more of less we’ll give it a chance to the work, but I’m telling you nga daghan kaayo og mga bright diha uy, they will figure out a way.”

The contention of Osmeña is contrary to the belief of the opposition leaders in Cebu City, who strongly believe that credible elections can be achieved only through the poll automation.

Former mayor Alvin Garcia said he will consider of running in next year’s elections only if there will be automation.

Garcia continues to claim that he was cheated by Osmeña in the 2001 and 2004 elections.

Osmeña said it would be very difficult to cheat with the manual counting of the election results because most of the political parties and the candidates themselves have their own watchers.

The officials of the Comelec and the winning bidder of the electronic counting machines have already signed the P7.2 billion contract for the implementation of the poll automation.

Guardo said that with automation, cheating can be minimized saying “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.” — Rene U. Borromeo with reports from Ely Bolonos/NLQ   (THE FREEMAN)