PPCRV: Election Day may start with replacement of PCOS cards in some precincts

The first moments of Election Day in some precincts may be spent replacing and testing memory cards for the counting machines to be used in the country's first nationwide automated elections, a poll watchdog said Wednesday. Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) chairperson Henrietta de Villa said they hope the replacement of the cards and a quick testing can be done in time. "Yun nga lang talagang ipit na ipit sa panahon. The positive side of it, nakita ang problema, at least may panahon pang ayusin ang problema at bigyan ng solusyon (We are really pressed for time. The positive side of it is that at least the problem was detected and there is still time to address it)," De Villa said in an interview on dzXL radio. She said that after placing the reconfigured cards, the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines worked properly in Tuesday night’s round of tests. But she said there are still more than 70,000 cards to be delivered to the precincts and tested, with just five days to go before Election Day. "Magkaroon sana ng sapat na panahon para ikalat at magkaroon ng testing kahit sa Election Day (We hope there will be enough time to distribute the cards and test them even on Election Day)," she said. Polls to push through Insisting the problems hounding its counting machines have already been addressed, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) junked Wednesday a suggestion to postpone the May 10 elections. Elections Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said test runs of the PCOS machines Tuesday night showed the machines worked well with the reconfigured memory cards. "No," Larrazabal said in an interview on dzXL radio early Wednesday, when asked if the Comelec will postpone the elections. "As discussed in Tuesday's en banc, we will have it on May 10," he added. He said they expect election Smartmatic-TIM to deliver all the reconfigured memory cards in time for the May 10 polls. "We cannot even begin to imagine and explain how big this election is at gaano kaimportante ang election na ito - this will be a successful election. With hard work I know it can be (We cannot even begin to imagine and explain how important this election is. With hard work I know this election will be successful)," he said. On the other hand, Comelec spokesman James Arthur Jimenez chided President Arroyo's election lawyer Romulo Macalintal for proposing that the elections be postponed because of the PCOS glitch. Jimenez appealed to voters to "not entertain doubts" about the election when they cast their votes on May 10. "Di maganda just because meron tayong kaunting pangamba, di pa pumapalya ang halalan. Nagkaroon tayo ng maliit na aberya na nasolusyonan kaagad (It is not good to resort to something that drastic. The election should not be threatened because of mere fears. This is a situation where a minor problem was quickly solved)," Jimenez said in an interview on dwIZ radio. On Tuesday, Macalintal said the Comelec can still exercise the option to postpone the May 10 polls. He said the poll body can still defer elections by at least 15 days. Scrap automated polls For its part, civil society groups such as the Black and White Movement pushed for the scrapping of automated counting, saying the glitches marring several PCOS machines have virtually destroyed public faith in the automated polls. "The Black and White Movement appeals with the highest sense of urgency that Comelec abandon the use of PCOS machines in the coming elections and revert to the manual system. It may take longer to determine the results, but it is much better than producing results in a day or two that no one will believe anyway," it said in a statement on its blog site. It said the glitch in the testing of PCOS machines Monday "irreversibly" crushes the people’s trust that the system badly needs. The group said that even if the Comelec will be successful in recalling, reconfiguring and redeploying the 76,000 flash cards, many test runs are needed to regain the people's trust and confidence. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV