The PCOS Question

November 22, 2012

 

            The Supreme Court had stamped with approval the legitimacy of the contract between the COMELEC and the Smartmatic, Inc. for the procurement and use of the PCOS machines in the 2013 midterm elections. This raises some concerns from those who believe that the elections should not be left to the machines which have given rise to serious controversies in the 2010 national elections.

Despite the claim that the 2010 national elections had been credible, the use of the precinct optical scan (PCOS) machines generated serious questions. The May 2010 elections were marred by the failure of the precinct optical scan (PCOS) machines to make accurate counts of the actual votes casted. For instance, the Manila Bulletin Online reported in May 2010 that the PCOS machines failed to tally with manual counts in areas such as Makati, Manila, Taguig, Pateros, Occidental Mindoro, and Davao City.

Politicians won and lost in a snap during the last elections. Nobody really expected how fast the PCOS machines would settle the fight at that time. The PCOS machines fastened politicians in their seats. Not even the lawyers were able to raise any objection; no pre-proclamation controversies and no legal tricks were able to prevent the swift verdict posted by the PCOS.

            Serious questions as to the reliability and the transparency of the automated election system, and its machines—the PCOS—were ventilated against the COMELEC and the Smartmatic, Inc. These questions remained unanswered to this day as the critics were labelled sore losers and rumormongers. The numbers of the people who were mesmerized by the swiftness of the system and the popularity of the winners had wiped out the voices of these critics and the validity of their cooncerns.

 The history of Philippine elections explains the dumfounded awe of many people with the PCOS machines.  With a long history of protracted canvassing and the legal tricks that could be employed to frustrate the results of the elections, this technology which had promised a swift end to the canvassing process was received with high enthusiasm. Canvassing no longer takes months or weeks. Winners are posted in split-seconds.

However, the concerns on how accurate and transparent the PCOS machines have not been fully addressed until today. Of course, the COMELEC and the Smartmatic gave us the assurance that these P11.8 billion PCOS machines would do an accurate votes count. Sadly, this same assurance had failed in the 2010 elections with known cases of electoral protests disclosing that after the manual counts, the PCOS machines proved to be certainly inaccurate. Just recently, Rene B. Azurin claimed that  a simple demonstration conducted last July 24-25 at the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms of the House of Representatives showed how Smartmatic’s automated voting and counting system fails -- miserably -- to meet the Comelec-required accuracy specification (99.995%). Dr. Pablo Manalastas of the Ateneo de Manila University calculated that a 1% error translates to some 380,000 votes and thus, the 6.2425% error in the presidential count shown above would translate to an error of some 2.37 million votes.(http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=Dangerous- indifference&id=57256.).

At first impression, the PCOS machines seem to satisfy the Filipinos’ hunger for speedy election results. Its claim for an efficient election results has captured the imagination of many. Unfortunately, speed is not a good criterion for the credibility of an election process. Haste makes waste, so the saying goes. A credible election is founded on the precepts of transparency and efficiency. They go together. An election system cannot be credible despite its claim on efficiency if it is not transparent. Neither can an election be acceptable despite the notion of its transparency if it is not efficient at all.    

            Unless the COMELEC can assure that the next elections will be both transparent and efficient, the PCOS machines will continue to feed our cynicism about the country’s electoral process. The future of the country is too precious to be entrusted to a likely deficient machine. Human imperfections put doubts on our capacity for honest and credible elections. Despite this, our imperfection and the inclination to promote our self-interests give us the motivation to strive for a credible election. Let us hope that the next elections will not be made subservient to the deficiency of the PCOS machines.