Comelec, Smartmatic ink P243-million contract for ballot boxes

MANILA, Philippines - Smartmatic International Corp. was awarded yesterday the P243-million contract to manufacture some 77,000 ballot boxes for use in the May 10 elections without any bidding.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Jose Melo said no bidding was undertaken because Smartmatic would be supplying the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

“We have the authority from the (Government Procurement Policy Board),” he said.

“We can give it to a separate bidder but it is important for the ballot boxes to fit in the PCOS machines... If the manufacturer of the PCOS is the same manufacturer of the ballot boxes, then all the responsibilities will be theirs.”

The old steel ballot boxes used in past elections could still be used for future manual or barangay elections, Melo said.

Smartmatic, with its Filipino partner Total Information Management Corp., had been contracted to manufacture some 82,200 PCOS machines.

Of these, 6,700 will be kept as spare in case any of the machines breaks down.

Cesar Flores, Smartmatic president for Asia-Pacific, said the manufacture of the ballot boxes in Taiwan would start in mid-March and would end a month later.

Smartmatic had already purchased the materials needed to manufacture the ballot boxes, he added.

Binay: Weak signal in Taguig

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay has expressed concern over the weak cell phone signal in Taguig City during a field test of the automated counting machines last week.

The running mate of former President Joseph Estrada said the problem would be larger in far-flung areas since a voting machine near the headquarters of the big telecom firms failed to transmit results due to poor signal. 

The Aguho Elementary School was within the six-kilometer-radius of Smart, Globe and Sun headquarters in Makati, Mandaluyong and Pasig, he added.

Binay said the counting machines used on Jan. 27 and 29 were unable to send the results via any of the three mobile phone service providers.

“If this dead spot could happen in a city where cellular phone density is high, in an area saturated by signals of the leading phone companies, then you can just imagine the ‘quality’ of phone service one can get in remote areas,” he said.

Binay proposed more field tests to probe the cell phone signal strength in places where they would be installed, with priority given to remote areas.

“Road tests in various parts of the country and not just in a place within sight of Makati high-rises would enable the Comelec to pinpoint problem areas ahead of voting day,” he said.

Binay said these dry runs would also show if the problem lies with the machine itself, not with weak cell phone signal.

“Practice makes perfect - and a way of discovering duds and lemons,” he said.

Binay said at the trial run last Wednesday in Aguho Elementary School, a PCOS machine was only able to transmit the results to Taguig City Hall after the SIM card was replaced.

In another pilot test last Friday, the same PCOS totally failed to transmit the results despite using SIM cards from Globe, Smart and Sun, he added.

Binay said another problem arose in the same precinct when the PCOS machine rejected four - out of 10 - shaded ballots.

“The high 40 percent failure rate is totally unacceptable,” he said.

“The lame excuse that precincts have a 36-hour window to transmit the results to the town or city canvassing bodies should not be accepted because it defeats the logic behind automation which is the fast, clean and error-free counting of votes.

“If 36 hours is the accepted threshold, then any mode would be faster. It would be faster to walk. If that is the case, then why should we computerize?”

Poll official: Delay in machine delivery toxic

A Comelec official described as “toxic” to the May 10 polls the delay in the delivery of the PCOS machines.

Lawyer Helen Aguila-Flores, Comelec regional director for Western Mindanao, said the delay would be a problem in the training of teachers to handle the machines.

“I foresee a problem with the delay,” she said. “The other programs will be affected also.”

Flores said another problem will be the transmission due to bad weather.

Power failures in the countryside and in urban areas will be another problem, she added.

The counting machines must be readied as early as possible to preempt any problem, Flores said.

The Comelec has ordered 82,000 of PCOS machines from Smartmatic.

So far, about 50 percent of the PCOS machines or about 48,700 units have been delivered, according to Comelec spokesman James Jimenez.

Ballot printing moved to Feb. 7

The Comelec has moved the printing of 50.7 million ballots for the May 10 elections to Feb. 7 for security reasons.

Comelec spokesman Jimenez said the decision was made so the ballots would not be stored for a long time in warehouses.

“The original shipment date of the ballots to the various municipalities was scheduled to start April 25,” he said.

“If we had started to print on the 31st then we would have finished printing by April 19.”

Jimenez said that would mean that the ballots would be “sitting” at the National Printing Office storage.

Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal asked political parties yesterday to submit their methodology on how they want the source code to be reviewed. – Sheila Crisostomo, Jose Rodel Clapano, Roel Pareño