Lift ban on ACMs, SC urged

Left-wing and Muslim-based party-list groups urged the Supreme Court (SC) to reconsider its January 2004 decision banning the use of automated counting machines (ACM).

"The SC will do the greatest justice to the Filipino voting public if it will set free the machines wrongly locked up, as it will pave the way for the start of a fraud-free 2007 national elections," Penny Disimban, chairman of the Assalam party-list group, said in a press conference.

Disimban added: "The results of the 2004 national elections proved again how untrustworthy and fraud-laden the current electoral system. Had the vote counting machines been used in the last elections, the ‘Garci’ tape controversy would have been avoided. We ourselves became direct victims of vote-shaving."

The Muslim-based party-list group actively campaigned for the late Fernando Poe Jr.

In a statement, the Alyansa ng Sambayanan Para sa Pagbabago (ASAP), a peasant-based party-list group, said the poll automation project "was merely a costly casualty in the protracted political infighting between pro-administration politicians and those opposed to Mrs. Arroyo."

"In truth, it is again the Filipino people who suffer the most, as it is their sovereign will that is trampled upon, and their taxpayer’s money that is wasted, every day the rotten electoral system remains," said lawyer Ernesto Arellano, ASAP chairman.