Tag: Smartmatic
Amid mock poll glitches, Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes says “Let us pray”
… in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit…
From Manila Bulletin thru Yahoo Philippines . “ The Commission on Elections (Comelec) asked the Filipino people, including those critical of the electoral preparations, to pray for the success of the May 13 midterm polls.
“ ‘’What we can only do now, since everything is already set, is to ask for everyone to pray so that we can really have a successful and problem-free election on May 13,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said in an interview.
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“ Proof of their sufficient preparation, he said, is the success of the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) in the past few days.
“ ‘’The fact that the problem of the FTS did not see a repeat proves that we did something to correct the problems in 2010,” Brillantes said.
“During the 2010 polls, the CF cards were found to have been misconfigured during the FTS, prompting the Comelec and service provider, Smartmatic – TIM Corporation, to replace all the close to 80,000 CF cards nationwide with only a week left before Election Day.
“Today, majority of the 77,829 clustered precincts spread in 36,772 voting centers nationwide are scheduled to hold their FTS based on the schedule of the Comelec.
“Last Thursday, some precincts already conducted their FTS with only minor glitches while other voting centers did not report any problems. xxx
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Time for our thank-you-prayers (and to party!) 
The worst did not happen: there was no “wholesale electronic cheating”, no massive disenfranchisement; the doomsdaysayers-who- did-not- suggest- any –countermeasures and the fearless forecasters who gave last election’s same forecast, should consider a career-shift; Smartmatic on the other hand should still be held accountable for the last-minute snafu and the near-cardiac arrest it subjected the Filipino nation, the Comelec should still consider proceeding against the ten per cent purchase price of the contract as penalty against Smartmatic, i’m sure there’s some contractual stipulation there against last-minute breaches of procedure and putting the beneficiary of the contract on the brink of disaster (Comelec can use the money to further study how to improve the automated system, or better yet: give the money to the teachers and PPCRV: Teachers!-Bonus! PPCRV-Research-grants!)…and my broadband speed and whatchmacall are back: small — miniscule– sacrifices.
Perhaps, the analog “dagdag-bawas” cheating criminal syndicate did not have enough time to figure out the new encryption of the re-configured compact flashdrives; perhaps, the eleventh-hour snafu threw the cheating gangs into confusion and frustration as well – just when they thought they had figured out the algorithms, the software of each drive was re-configured (replaced!); throwing everybody — including Malacañang, top election lawyers, the Garci special ops, and also Comelec into confusion.
And while Smartmatic’s Asia-Pacific company president Cesar Flores in his Venezuelan accent, double-rr’s double-ee’s, could resort to clichés in their defense “Eet waas eh blessing in deesguise” (it was a blessing in disguise), “Hah ken you arrgue ehgenst sekcces” (How can you argue against success) “Ohls well that ends well” (All’s well that ends well) “Derr was method in ahrr medness” (There was method in our madness), — and while he is safe from reconsidering his day job and auditioning for a lead role in an ABS-CBN-produced new Mexican telenovela — we should still proceed against Smartmatic’s ten per cent (that’s still 10% of 7.2 billion), this is no way to run an election – on a cardiac finish! (Pay up, guys.)
For future elections, the analog dagdag-bawas cheating syndicates have three years, they have time – they will wisen up.
So should we.
And for that, serious study should be given to restoring or activating the security features such as a monitor or display of the vote cast (even the most antiquated ATM gives you a display or receipt for your minimum one hundred pesos), or a paper receipt/record of the vote cast, to be returned and put inside the ballot box upon exit of the voter, ultraviolet security markings, voter verification system, etc.
Because we might have used up our quota on good luck, blessings, serendipity, graces, and good karma.
