Is the COMELEC indeed ready to hold the first ever automated elections in the Philippines with the whole process from precinct level voting, vote count, and canvassing largely going through computers?
The COMELEC says it even has contingency plans through to Plan ‘D’ with the automated process virtually error free and with minimal human intervention which has been the hallmark of fraud-ridden political exercises since time immemorial.
All indications as of today point to one likely winner in the bidding: SmartMatic.
The poll body hastens to add that while the consortium is the only one left among 7 original bidders, given its lowest responsive offer of a contract price of PhP 7.2-B, Smartmatic still has to pass a full demonstration of its proffered Precinct Count Optical Scan machines and after the COMELEC dispenses with the appeals of the losing bidders.
Our readers may not believe it, but as early as two full months ago there has been much talk that the so-called ‘alphabet team’ would win the tender.
The tag alphabet referred to the so-calleed BCA Group which draws its initials from the three main principals who comprise the firm which is the same entity that got the information technology contracts for the computerization of the Land Registration Authority, the Department of Foreign Affairs passporting system, the Land Transportation Office plus the Southern Tagaloc Arterial Road (STAR) Tollway.
But as rumors go it would be grossly unfair for any suspicions to be cast on both the COMELEC and the BCA.
To be fair, newspapers over the weekend carried a direct warning by the COMELEC dissuading the bidders from colluding with one another.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=469066&publicationSubCategoryId=63
We need to see the bidding process through to its conclusions and for any questions about the contract award to be raised, and clarified, in the proper legal forum.
Today one side issue being raised is why it was the COMELEC’s own spokesman, Hames Jimenez who helped coordinate the interview with new media of Smartmatic with the lame excuse that “Smartmatic is not familiar with the press.”
Jimenez’s booboo aside, there exists unresolved issues about the Smartmatic elections solution and the foreign entities behind it.
The montage above is composed of freeze frames from reports of both Cable News Network and Fox News about how the automated elections were undertaken in 2006 in Florida, U.S.A. where some 19,000 Smartmatic Diebold machines were put to use.
Fox News Report:
(video above)
The news reports assert that the machines could be hacked and were unreliable. This writer does not draw conclusions from these news reports but they cannot be ignored.
Popularity: 3% [?]
It is not expected to be fool proof if they claim it to be, sira sila.
Hacking can be done from inside and out, but constraints are no excuse not to move forward. the old fashioned vigilance must still be there,yun nga lang it would take more IT guys do do guarding of the votes.Matanong ko lang di kasi ako updated dito, open source ba yung software ng winning bidder?
No Karl, it’s proprietary to Smartmatic. The COMELEC BTW is still nuancing that whil there is a sole qualifying bidder left it has technically not won. Hohum, I say.
As you also say; Oh,well.
Read between the lines…ang lagay e… ang kay ser at ke mam
Hey! Where did my post go?
Imagine, if America are governed by Filipinos like Filipinos govern their blog in the name of FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, RIGHTS-TO-REPLY!!!!
Can a Filipino learn? ANSWER: BIG N-0! NO!
They still have that martial law mentality!!! HAAAAAY! NAKU!!!
FLIPS JUST CANNOT LEARN!!!!!
Renato: I do not know where your post went, but I am making a mental note that you believe that one of your posts to DingG’s blogpost thread has been deleted.
??? Deleted blog???
My suggestion : To put
”EDITOR’S NOTE: portions of original entry have been removed or editted.”
whenever a blog post is editted.
To put “Editor Note: original entry has been deleted”
while retaining the blog-id, date/time when the deleted entry was submitted.
We are either deluded by people of the COMELEC. Or the people in the
COMELEC do not know what they are doing. They are assuring us that
eveything is okay. Yet, we see them not producing good results. They
dont have to tell us. We have eyes to see. We are not naive. We have
also good brains to think.
Let’s not talk about election 2010. The election was already signed by FFCruz in COMELEC toilet!!!!!! :)
I never said that Smartmatic was not familiar with the press, Mr. G. And, there was no boo-boo there. I’d be very interested to hear why you think otherwise.
James Jimenez
I’m no techie, but all the negativity in the press seems to be pre-empting the need for computerization, the proper techie assessments etc. I believe the cartel inside the Comelec (not necessarily the big bosses, a cabal of bureaucrats inside, I was told by someone with first hand experience) will be disenfranchised.
If the election automation is successful in 2010, it’s another major shift in Philippine politics and society. The LRT/MRT, the nautical highway or the no frills flights (e.g. Cebu Pacific), the mobile/text capabilities have contributed to major behavioural changes in the people. Only for the better.
Hi Mr. James,
As I responded in your same missive over in my blog,the matter of your helping Smartmatic link up with the press was widely reported. You are correct that perhaps you did not say Smarttmatic was not familiar with the press.
In my humble view this then make your facilitation suspect, or at least sends the wrong message.
That was a boo boo.
More to the point, Sir James, you can perhaps address the main point in the post, if you care to, kind sir.
If the election automation is successful in 2010, it’s another major shift in Philippine politics and society.
Debugging: Trees and Forests
The automation is but one module of a bigger system of elections.
Agreeably, the module makes voting faster. But one module does not, a system make.
Debugging one module does not necessarily mean an improvement in the system because until all modules are fully debugged, improved, optimized, redesigned based on the circumstances the system will still be performing way below peak performance if not erroneously.
There could be a temptation to get complacent when casting of ballots becomes automated in the sense that while automated voting machines is an improvement in the module that involves the casting of ballots, the voting machine will not have much impact on the manner by which voters make choices.
We can be voting really quickly, very transparently, very smoothly…………. for a moron or a thief or someone with both qualities!