Despite the delay in awarding the P11-billion worth of bid to automate the 2010 elections and the threat of an impending Constitutional Assembly, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) assured the public that all systems are ready for the modernization of the electoral process.
“The point is, automation is supposed to improve the way how elections work now if the machines do not work as planned then the only process that will be lost is the automated counting but that doesn’t mean that the election will not continue,” said James Jimenez, official spokesperson of Comelec.
Jimenez added, they are ready to face the consequences later should the worst case scenario happen but he stressed that the risks should not prevent the public from giving automation a chance simply because of the possible risk to fail.
“Whether it’s a manual election or automated election, the risk or the consequences of losing the ballot remains the same. It’s not more risky now than before and so even if we are not automated we will still be operating under the same conditions,” explained Jimenez.
To minimize risks, Jimenez emphasizes the need to educate the public to raise awareness and to ensure that the voters understand the automated process from start to end. Under the law, Comelec is given at least six months to conduct the comprehensive education program particularly on the ballot design.
The initiative will be a joint effort of Comelec and Smartmatic who will combine expertise on election process and technical know-how. Jimenez added the idea is to set up networks this early so that when the education team goes nationwide, the ground work has already been laid out.
“We started our voter’s education program last June 12 in Plaza Miranda, Manila. A week later, we brought it in the Visayas, in Iloilo City. Then next week we will launch it in the South, probably in Zamboanga or Davao. So by second half of July we will already begin with the nationwide information dissemination, so that gives us 11 months,” shared Jimenez.