PIMENTEL CALLS FOR AN END TO BICKERINGS
OVER ISSUE OF AUTOMATING MAY POLLS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said he respects the decision of the Commission on Elections not to computerize the May 14, 2007 polls despite President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyos signing of Republic Act 9369 which prescribes an Automated Election System (AES).

Pimentel called on all parties concerned to stop bickering over the issue of whether to proceed or shelve the automation of the coming national and local elections.

With barely four months before election day, he said any effort to implement the AES at this time will end up in disaster.

I think, acute time constraints prevent the Comelec to implement the law on automation of the electoral process, in time for the May 14 voting. To say that it could still be done would be wishful thinking, the minority leader said.

Pimentel cited the opinion of election authorities and information technology experts that there should be at least one year of preparation for automated elections even on a partial basis.

He warned that implementing the AES with undue haste and in haphazard manner would only lead to the repetition of the failed poll automation project in during the 2004 elections and the 1996 regional election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

But since the AES law has already been signed and P2.6 billion has been allotted for the purpose, the Comelec can already lay the groundwork for the instituting an automated voting and counting scheme so that it will be in place in the 2010 elections, the senator said.

According to Pimentel, the original version of the AES law was for the automation scheme to cover only two pilot provinces and two pilot cities, in the first election after the approval of the law.

But in the final version of the AES law, he said the number of pilot areas has been expanded to 12 two provinces, and two highly urbanized cities each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Pimentel said he was for limiting the pilot areas to only two provinces and two cities so that in case something goes wrong with the automated counting machines, its adverse effects will be minimal.

But if you widen the areas of coverage of the automated election on a pilot basis, so many people will be disenfranchised in case the automated system malfunctions. This might also cause disarray to the tabulation of votes and determination of winners in the senatorial race, he said.

RA 9369 mandates a nationwide automation of the 2010 national and local elections.

However, Pimentel said it would be more advantageous to implement the automation of elections on a gradual basis to ensure its efficiency and accuracy.

Even in the United States, he said there is no such thing as full computerization because of its relative complexity and it takes time for voters to adjust to sophisticated system.

Pimentel observed that Belgium started computerizing elections 12 years ago, but this does not yet apply to 40 percent of the voting areas.