it’s exactly 100 days today before the Philippine May 10 elections, however glimpses of a major automation failure is already seen by ex officials
“Deliveries, testing, calibration, validation and training for automated elections are delayed. Ballot printing is also delayed… The risks of failures of the 2010 elections are increasing everyday,” the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO) group stated.
this statement came after two field tests sending counted votes from Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines failed to reach the central server of the Comelec due to weak mobile network signals (later resolved after the SIM cards were changed).
there have also been reports of difficulty ensuring safe delivery of these machines to remote areas, and of course since this is new to the Filipinos, concerns about ballot security is still alive.
everyone knew the challenge involved in the automation law (passed as early as 1997), nobody would have guessed this be easy. this is why COMELEC also urged bloggers not only to help with the information dissemination but be vigilant as well. there are still so many gray areas that we’re venturing, let’s just hope for the best.
read more [abs-cbnnews.com]
set it good 