Ballot printing finished this week - Comelec

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) assured the people yesterday that the printing of the 50.7 million ballots would be completed this week, brushing aside critics’ claims that the poll body would not be able to produce the ballots on time.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the last ballot might be printed one or two days ahead of the April 25 deadline given to the Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (TIM).

In a press briefing, he claimed that as of 7 a.m. yesterday, some 46.8 million ballots have already been printed at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.

“This will hopefully allay the false and baseless rumors that we won’t be able to print all the ballots on time,” he said.

Larrazabal revealed that the transfer of official ballots from the NPO to the Philpost Distribution Center in Port Area, Manila has already started.

“It was agreed upon by the commissioners. (Comelec) Chairman (Jose) Melo said that we continue there because there is no space at the NPO and there’s no other viable location for the official ballots,” he added.

The transfer was suspended amid reports that the Comelec will spend P92 million for the transfer of the ballots from the NPO to the Philpost Distribution Center.

Larrazabal said the estimate had been lowered to P23 million but he refused to say if the same forwarding company would get the contract to transport the ballots.

He admitted that until now the Comelec and the forwarding firm have not signed a contract. He claimed that Comelec trucks are being used to transport the ballots.

“It’s much less than what was previously quoted,” Larrazabal said. 

Meanwhile, Smartmatic-TIM said yesterday that the coverage of the random manual audit allowed by the Comelec for the May 10 polls is enough to represent all the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

Smarmatic-TIM president for Asia Pacific Cesar Flores said that although the audit would only involve some 1.5 percent of the 76,340 polling precincts, it is already a “good-size sample.”      

“I think it’s a good-sized sample but the important thing is not the size but geographically represented and it’s also random,” he added.

The conduct of the random manual audit has been demanded by various civic groups to determine if the PCOS machines will count the ballots accurately. 

They wanted the audit to be done before the winning candidates are proclaimed, but the Comelec has decided to do it after the proclamation for fear that it would spark electoral protest, thus delaying the proclamation.

Flores said they are confident that the audit would only prove that the automated election system is reliable.

“The objective is to see if there is evidence that, somehow, the system does not work properly or evidence that there was manipulation. Basically, this will corroborate the stability and the reliability of the system,” Flores said.

Smartmatic-TIM has started the delivery of some 5,000 Broadband Global Area Network apparatus to six remote provinces with unreliable cellular telephone services so that they could be tested in time for the May 10 elections.

Smartmatic-TIM spokesman Gene Gregorio said his firm has finished the recruitment and training of at least 49,000 computer technicians to be deployed at polling precincts nationwide on the average of two technicians for each PCOS machine.

Gregorio said the Broadband Global Area Network apparatus, which is as big as an ordinary computer, would be able to transmit election data via satellite from areas where cell phone signals are not stable, such as in Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga, Samar, Leyte, Benguet and Abra.

The Comelec said earlier that these provinces have about three million voters.

The mode of transmission of the poll results of automated voting at the precincts would be done through mobile networks in other areas.

Gregorio said that the broadband apparatus will be secured not only by personnel deployed by Smartmatic-TIM, but also by the police and the military once they reach their destinations located close to the precincts.

Comelec exec hits illegal campaign posters

Lawyer Sabino Mejarito, the provincial election supervisor in Bulacan, said officials of the Comelec and the local police should be relieved for failing to implement the law regulating campaign posters.

He said most candidates are violating the law and are putting posters and other campaign material anywhere they like and have ignored the common poster areas designated by the Comelec.

Mejarito told The STAR that election officers in every town are mandated to remove illegal campaign posters, while police officers are also deputized to assist in the clearing operations.

“They should implement the law, otherwise they should be removed from office,” said Mejarito, who cited the proliferation of illegal campaign posters on electrical posts, trees, and walls along major highways and roads in Bulacan and other parts of the country.

Mejarito explained that the local Comelec officers have identified common poster areas but the candidates simply ignore it.

He said the Fair Elections Act should be amended or repealed to compel candidates to obey the law.

“It (law) must be amended to include provision on automatic disqualification of violators, otherwise it should be repealed,” he said.

Mejarito said he had strictly implemented the law against illegal posters in Bulacan, and led Comelec employees and representatives from the Manila Electric Co. in removing illegal posters along MacArthur Highway in Malolos. – With Evelyn Macairan, Dino Balabo, Ding Cervantes