E-voting at House back to square one

MANILA, Philippines – The electronic voting system of the House of Representatives that has been delayed for six months due to technical defects will be reinstalled for operation when President Arroyo delivers her annual State-of-the-Nation-Address (SONA) on July 28.

House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor said Speaker Prospero Nograles has directed the contractor to prioritize the repair of the electronic voting system and pull out the fingerprint scanners installed on each congressman’s desk.

“We returned the gadgets to the contractor and they were told not to install it until it works perfectly. We made it clear to the contractor that we will not pay unless and until they come up with a system that works,” Defensor said.

Nograles had pointed out to the contractor that the fingerprint scanners installed in the congressmen’s desks were the cause of the problem.

“The apparatus had to be removed because the system failed in the first test,” Defensor said.

“The system was defective, that’s why Speaker Nograles ordered the contractor to pull them out. The timeline for them (bidder) to install it is that they must be operational before the SONA (in July),” Defensor said.

Infobahn won the P30-million contract in late 2007. It took them more than a month, from December  2007 to January 2008, to install the wirings six inches beneath the floor of the session hall, where 237 House members deliberate and vote on important pieces of legislation.

The state-of-the-art project was initiated by then Speaker Jose de Venecia and passed on to Nograles who took over the House leadership in early February, when almost 200 congressmen voted to oust the Pangasinan lawmaker at the height of the botched $329-million national broadband network (NBN) deal scandal.

Nograles hinted the House leadership may totally abandon the biometric system if it continues to malfunction. 

“We will junk it if it does not work. How can we use something that does not function?” he remarked.

Nograles made the statement after Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra – who was also instrumental in De Venecia’s expulsion – said the electronic voting system was a failure since fingerprints of House employees, acting in behalf of the lawmakers, were not recognized.                  

House insiders revealed a dry run late last month resulted in the malfunctioning of the e-voting system, as only 11 of the 50 thumbprints of House employees were recognized, leaving out 39 others.

Mitra was tasked by Nograles to head the committee on reforms that the new leadership will be carrying out.

“We owe it to the people to make sure that every penny they spend on us is worth it. It would be a shame if we spend taxpayers’ money on this scheme that’s not working,” Mitra said. – With Christina Paguinto