PCS vice president Antonio Tinsay said the only hope for an automated election is the immediate passage of Senate Bill No. 2231, an election automation bill, which contains the amendments suggested by the PCS.
The PCS is the sole authority mandated by law to assist the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in pursuing the country's election automation program.
Tinsay said there are only a few weeks left for a chance to have automated polls in the Philippines, as the winning bidder for the poll automated system needs a year to prepare. And, with only eight months to go, he said the time limit has become 'too stiff' already.
"There's a window of time, but it is about to close," Tinsay said in an interview with Computerworld Philippines. "We (PCS) are hoping that by early September the Senate would be able to pass the bill."
To avoid losing valuable time, the Comelec has asked PCS to convene, plan, and determine if there's still enough time for automating the May 2007 elections, he noted.
Automation options
According to Tinsay, there are a number of options for automating the elections, and the two options PCS is considering are a "fully automated voting" system and a "computer-assisted manual voting" scheme.
Other alternatives include the use of voting machines or the "Botong Pinoy" system donated by Mega Data Corp. The administration is also looking at the possibility of using of the automated counting machines (ACMs) which the Supreme Court banned in its January 2004 ruling declaring as "illegal" the bidding process the Comelec conducted for purchasing the machines.
Last Aug. 23, the SC rejected the petition filed by President Gloria Arroyo's election lawyer Romulo Macalintal requesting that the ACMs be used for the May 2007 elections.
"Assuming the SC allows a motion for reconsideration filed by the petitioner, the preparation for the use of the ACMs should immediately start now," Tinsay said. "If we lose a few more months, it won't be technically viable anymore."
Tinsay explained that a fully automated voting system will automate the election process from voting, to the counting of votes, all the way to the canvassing of the votes.
On the other hand, a computer-assisted manual voting system would have the voting and counting of votes still done manually, but where, for the canvassing stage, the votes counted in the precincts would be electronically transmitted to the Comelec with the use of electronic devices.
"There are various proposals for capturing the results of the manual voting and transmitting the data electronically. These include scanning, picture-taking, SMS (or text messaging) or by using a low-cost data capturing device that you can beam into the computer and create an election report and transmit the encoded data," Tinsay said.
Senate Bill No. 2231
The PCS official said the full automation voting system, if implemented, would cover 20 percent of the voting precincts in certain pilot areas to be decided by Congress and the Senate. The computerized assisted manual voting system, meanwhile, would cover 80 percent of the voting precincts.
"There is still time for the computerized manual voting, but if we will lose two more months without preparations, it won't also be viable," Tinsay said. He noted that for this system to be implemented, SB No. 2231 must be passed into law -- otherwise, the system won't be valid under existing laws.
SB No. 2231, which was authored by Sen. Richard Gordon, was supposed to have been decided last Wednesday (Aug. 30) but was put on hold since Sen. Sergio Osme'a Jr. was not yet prepared to introduce his amendments, Tinsay said.
The PCS has suggested eight amendments in the bill. These include lifting the limit on the type of technology to be used in a fully automated voting system, or in the electronic transmission of voting results for precincts in the case of a computerize-assisted manual voting system.
Tinsay said the objective of the electronic transmission of results is to substantially eliminate wholesale "dagdag bawas," or the widespread practice of tinkering with election returns.
From the precinct level, voting results would become widely known immediately -- even before the official canvassing -- since these would be electronically transmitted to all concerned groups: the Comelec, Congress, the citizens' vote counting groups, all political parties, and the media.