Comelec may revert to manual elections in 2013

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) warned yesterday that next year’s midterm elections might have to revert to manual because of a legal toss-up over whether the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines from 2010 can be used again.

The Supreme Court (SC) has been urged to decide immediately on the matter.

“Our actual deadline (to go full blast in the preparations) is between May 15 to 30. So we hope the Supreme Court can come out with a decision during this period. In case the ruling is not in favor of us, we’ll still have time to hold bidding,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said.

Brillantes noted if the high tribunal decides to stop the Comelec from using the PCOS machines of Smartmatic International Corp. by June or July, it would already be difficult for them to hold a public bidding for another technology.

He added that doing the bidding late would be detrimental to the winning bidder because there will not be enough time to manufacture the machines.

If that happens, Brillantes said the Comelec might be forced to revert to manual elections.

“I hope that will not happen because of the problems accompanying a manual election, which means going back to Jurassic Age,” he said.

Last Tuesday, the SC issued a temporary restraining order stopping the Comelec from buying and reusing some 82,000 PCOS machines of Smartmatic.

This stemmed from a petition filed by the Automated Election Watch and the Solidarity for Sovereignty, which questioned the legality of the deal between Smartmatic and Comelec, and the integrity of the PCOS machines.