Election watchdog AES Watch is in dismay over a number of glitches in the vote counting machines (VCM) during Monday’s national elections.
Among the reported problems are discrepancies in the results; missing names of voters; questionable transmission rules on the physical importation of SD cards from the VCM to the canvassing center; and problems in the transmission of results from overseas.
“There wasn’t any clear rule from comelec on what to do in case a vcm malfunctions,” said Anna Leah Escresa of We Watch.
” The machine does not count accurately is already been manifested not only the overseas absentee voting but also in some parts in the Philippines,” as exclaimed by former PH Computer Society President Toti Casino.
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) Policy Director Bobby Tuazon remarks, “the game is over for Smartmatic after 3 elections, 2010, 2013, 2016. Smartmatic has not indicated nor even supplied a system that is complied with the law that has not been certified by technical evaluation committee we also call the JCOC and other congressional committees to conduct an investigation.”
AES Watch also believes that Congress should investigate all the problems encountered during the polls and review the election modernization law.
Former COMELEC Commissioner Gus Lagman is also dismayed that the canvassing was done using a software provided by Smartmatic.
“Who actually is counting our votes? The machine will not do anything without software, so it’s the software that counted the votes. Who wrote the software? Smartmatic. Therefore it was Smartmatic that counted our votes. The people who counted our votes are foreigners,” explained Lagman.
The group appeals for real transparency in the transmission of votes. They also suggest that executives of Smartmatic should be held from departing the country and be investigated in line with the problems on the VCMs including the Novotel issue.
The AES Watch challenges the next administration to begin a true reform in the country’s election system and apprehend those guilty of violating the automation law.
(BRYAN DE PAZ/UNTV News)
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