Source code delivery uncertain — Brillantes
Poll chief to set deadline for 2 firms to deliver the device before May polls
Comelec chief says that the absence of source code will not be hampering the conduct of the automated elections, but is more on ensuring the credibility of the elections Comelec removes use of indelible ink for overseas absentee voting
CHANCES of the source code of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines coming to the Philippines remain elusive with only 28 days to go before the May 13 polls.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes lamented their continued failure to secure the source code despite their relentless negotiations with Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic International.
“About 50 percent chance. It went down again only because of the time constraints since there are only a few weeks left before our elections,” said Brillantes.
Earlier development
Earlier this month, the poll chief said the probability of securing the source code is already at 97 percent with an agreement already being drafted by the stakeholders and are up for approval of their lawyers in the United States.
Brillantes said the two firms continue to disagree over certain contents of the agreement, particularly over “monetary issues.”
He said this is the part that frustrates him considering that he has been mediating for several months between lawyers of the two companies here in the country.
“My interest here is only the interest of the Philippine Government and the Comelec, which is paramount over and above every- body else,” said the official.
Because of this, Brillantes said he will e-mail the lawyers of Dominion and Smartmatic in the United States asking for a deadline for the source code issue.
“I’m sending my e-mail to both Smartmatic and Dominion US lawyers, and I’ll say, by within the week, if we don’t get any response, we will just say it’s over,” said the former poll lawyer.
Brillantes had said in the past that the absence of the source code will not be hampering the conduct of the automated elections, but is more on ensuring the credibility of the elections.
Permission
To recall, Dominion has been refusing to give its permission for SLI Global Solutions, the Comelec’s third party reviewer, to release the source code certification to the poll body, amid the former’s continued legal dispute with Smartmatic.
The source code is defined as the human readable instructions that define what the computer equipment will do.
But aside from the source code, the Comelec chair said they are already “practically ready” for the May 13 polls.
“We are practically ready. I think it should be over 90 percent by now. This is a work in progress and we are already in the finishing stage,” said Brillantes.
He said that their preparation could have been completed much earlier had they not been hounded by some issues during the public bidding, particularly among those projects won by Smartmatic.
Notices
The Comelec had issued notices to proceed to their contractors for the establishment of national support center, delivery of ballot boxes, setting up of the transmission services and modems, delivery of compact flash cards, thermal papers, marking pens, toners and external rechargeable batteries and the deployment of election equipment and paraphernalia to different regions.
The month-long overseas absentee voting (OAV) had also begun last Saturday in almost all participating Philippine posts abroad, including the seven areas where the PCOS machines will be utilized.
The Comelec has decided to remove the use of indelible ink for the overseas absentee voting.
Brillantes said putting the ink on the voter’s index fingernail will be useless since the voting period for the OAV is 30 days.
“The voting period is for 30 days. If you put an indelible ink to a flying voter, the ink will last for several days only. So it will be useless since this is not a one day voting period,” he explained.
Traditionally, the ink is placed on the voter’s fingernail after casting his vote.
Malfunction
On the other hand, the Comelec chief reported that two machines in Hong Kong malfunctioned reportedly due to the “bleeding inks” of the permanent markers.
Brillantes said the ink that bled had smudged the ballots that may have leaked to the PCOS machines when the ballots were fed.
The OAV has 737,759 registered voters, excluding the 238,557 voters supposed to be delisted for not being able to participate in the 2007 and 2010 elections but were reinstated by the Comelec.
Seven areas namely: Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Jeddah, Kuwait, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi will be using the PCOS machines for the automated polls, while a total 30 posts will be using personal voting. (