Bangon Pilipinas Party (BPP) today asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct more random tests on at least 500 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines on or before Friday to allay fears amidst serious system failures in test runs.
BPP standard-bearer Bro. Eddie Villanueva, along with lawyers Ted Pascua and Lyndon Caña went to the Comelec office around noon-time Thursday to formally file the petition to postpone Monday’s elections if the new random tests on PCOS machines continue to show glitches.
“We are asking Comelec to assure the public that it assure the integrity, smooth performance and legal requisites of the automated elections by doing more random tests. If after the tests, it still encounters problems, then we are asking Comelec to consider the postponement of Monday’s elections to May 24,” Villanueva told reporters upon filing the petition in Comelec.
The rescheduling of the elections, he said, will give the poll body time to correct glitches and place safety nets in the automated polling system.
Villanueva said they decided to petition the Comelec following reports that the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines misread and miss credited votes upon testing its preparedness for May 10, 2010.
"Our supporters from different parts of the country who witnessed the tests of PCOS machines attested that inaccuracy pervaded the operations of the machines such that even if the name of another candidate was marked as voted for, the machine will read and credit the vote to the name of another candidate. This is very alarming," he said.
"If the PCOS machines are not counting accurately, this May 10 elections would be more horrible than the rigged election of 2004. The Comelec must be accountable later for this unmitigated disaster,” Villanueva continued.
He said that if the Comelec needs time to correct all the defects, then it must be given the shortest possible time to make all corrections just to ensure that the elections will not be a farce.
According to BPP’s petition, the recent problems encountered with the PCOS machines and their compact flash cards have cast doubt on whether the elections “would work with the least problems and with results that the people could trust and accept.”
The petition said that wholesale recall of the PCOS machines’ flash cards would qualify as a basis for the postponement of the election under Section 5 of the Omnibus Election Code and Rule 26 of the Comelec Rules of Procedure.
“That while Smartmatic may have assured the public that the technical remedy to the problem can be obtained and implemented before the original schedule of May 10, 2010, the more substantial requirement of credibility of the holding of such an election cannot be assured, satisfied, or complied with such technical remedy alone,” the petition said.
It also warned that forcing the holding of the elections in May 10 under the present circumstances could result in a public rejection of the elections’ results and the possibility of “public upheaval, chaos, or social disorder.”
A reset of the election date for May 24, the BPP petition said, will be enough to grant the Comelec, Smartmatic, and the electorate “sufficient time to reach an acceptable level of readiness and competence to carry out the automated election system and to gain an acceptable level of confidence in the election results.”
The petition also asks the Comelec to order its provincial, city and municipal offices to schedule a re-testing of the machines in public, in the presence of the watchers of the parties and all stakeholders.”
“Consequently, and considering the recent developments, petitioners respectfully implore this Honorable Commission to see the overriding merits of this petition vis-à-vis the mere simple desire to have an electoral exercise ‘done away with’.”