Poll watchdogs express misgivings over automated election system

With Eleksyon 2022 just weeks away, several poll watchdog group members said they had misgivings about the automated election system (AES) due to a  supposed lack of procedures and a failure to comply with the law.

The National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch), and Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) said the system could not be trusted.

“No, because it is not compliant with the law. The law says that the election process must be transparent,” explained Namfrel National Chairman Gus Lagman at the Pandesal Forum.

Lagman explained that around 70% of the ballot printing was not observed by concerned groups. And since Namfrel belatedly learned of the ballot printing schedule, he said only 30% of this process was inspected.

For his part, AES Watch spokesperson Nelson Celis said that the integrity of the system was not only about the technology but also about the procedures and the people who are managing it.

“Kung titignan mo ang (If you will look at the) computers, technology, garbage in, garbage out, so whoever is the supplier it’s all about how you program the computer whether it is Smartmatic or it is Dominion. It's all about people around it,” said Celes.

Celis also sought an update from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on reports of the certification of the automated election system.

Citing Section 11 of the Republic Act 9369, he asked for the “continuity plan” of the system, which is required in case of a system breakdown, delay, obstruction, or nonperformance of the electoral process.

Former Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Eliseo Rio likewise said that the AES could not be trusted.

He said they had forwarded some recommendations for the conduct of the automated elections, among which was a random manual audit and requiring digital signatures in the system.

However, former Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon had no qualms over the accuracy of the Smartmatic system.

“Ilang eleksyon na po yung dinaanan natin sa Smartmatic at yung accuracy niya ay very, very satisfactory. At hindi lang naman po ang Comelec ang nag-check, meron naman tayong PPCRV, Namfrel ngayon,” she said.

(We've had several elections with Smartmatic and its accuracy is very, very satisfactory. And not only Comelec, but also PPCRV and Namfrel were checking it.) — DVM, GMA News