"What this Country needs is not a change OF men but a change IN men" March 1980

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Probe COMELEC's failure to automate polls

The Commission on Elections needs to explain why it is still conducting elections manually 11 years after the poll automation law has been enacted, Senator Richard Gordon said Tuesday.

The chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws said he has called for a Senate inquiry into the matter Thursday.

Comelec has received billions of pesos for the automation of the elections, Gordon said.

"They lost P1 billion in the ID card, they lost P1.3 billion thrown out by the Supreme Court, they did not automate for the regular elections in 2007. They did not automate for the barangay (village polls) and promised to automate this time (for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) and they did not again," he said.

Gordon said he could not expect the poll body to automate the 2010 presidential elections.

"If they don't have a practice session here, how can they automate? They will just say that they will not be able to implement in the whole country…I am not beyond their nasty surprises. They say this, they don't. This is really serious lying," he said.

He said an automated election would have assured the people of a clean and fast count.

Gordon reiterated his earlier proposition to simply lease and not buy new machines to count votes in the next elections.


Senator wants Comelec’s failure to automate polls probed
By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 19:55:00 04/22/2008
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080422-132053/
Senator-wants-Comelecs-failure-to-automate-polls-probed


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