Smartmatic hurdles initial tests

MANILA, Philippines – The precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines of the consortium of Smartmatic and Total Information Management Corp. have passed six of the 26 criteria set by the Commission on Elections-Special Bids and Awards Committee (Comelec-SBAC).

According to Comelec-SBAC head Ferdinand Rafanan, there was no error when the ballots prepared by the Comelec’s Technical Working Group (TWG) were fed into and processed by the machines.

“Everything is smooth. So far in the 26 criteria, the machines passed six of them,” Rafanan told reporters.

During a demonstration, the machines were initially tested against six items in SBAC’s checklist. These items aim to determine if the system will allow the feeding of ballots into the PCOS machines, if it can scan a ballot sheet at the speed of at least 2.75 inches per second, if the system has a scanning resolution of at least 200 dpi and if it has an electronic display, among others.

Ballots prepared by TWG members were fed into the machines while observers from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, Transparency and Accountability Network, Procurement Watch, Commission on Audit and Office of the Ombudsman and representatives of bidders watched.

Each ballot contains 600 names. Fake and repeated ballots have also been prepared to determine if they could be detected by the machines.

“We will finish the demonstration (today). There will be some tests, and an end-to-end demonstration will be done,” Rafanan said. This means that a fully-automated election process – from voting to counting, canvassing and transmission – will be simulated.

But during the demonstration, Rafanan announced that electronic devices like cellular phones would be banned at the bidding room starting today because they could interfere with the transmission process. His announcement raised a howl of protest from the media and other observers.

He noted that they wanted to be strict on electronic devices because “electronic interference” could ruin the preparations that they have been making to automate next year’s polls.

Rafanan added that security against possible “electronic interference” is not included in the 26 criteria to be checked by SBAC. The criteria are included in the terms of reference bought by the bidders from the Comelec for P1 million.

But Rafanan said that protection against electronic interference could be included when the machines are being customized.

Comelec chairman Jose Melo said that in case of a bidding failure, the poll body would not resort to negotiated contract or go back to manual elections.

Melo claimed that Comelec would rather conduct another bidding for partial automation or they could just centralize the counting which was done in the regional election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in August 2008.

Melo added he is very confident that the 2010 polls could be fully automated without the Comelec settling “for less” in choosing the bidder.