Manual count possible in 30 percent of precincts

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is bracing for the possibility of holding manual vote-counting in 30 percent of polling precincts nationwide. Comelec officials made this disclosure on Wednesday, despite swearing by the reliability of its automated poll machines, many of which have yet to be delivered and tested. At the same time, poll officials assured the public that it does not actually foresee the manual counting to occur. The 30 percent rate is “only a conservative estimate," Comelec commissioner Armando Velasco said during a hearing of the House oversight committee on poll automation. The estimate is the result of the poll body’s “very high degree of preparation," Comelec law department head Ferdinand Rafanan added. "It was arbitrary. It was only to raise our level of preparedness," Rafanan told reporters after the hearing. He said he has reason to believe that the poll body will not have to resort to manual counting at all. Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) – which won the contract to supply precinct count optical scanner (PCOS) machines to the Comelec – said that it has only experienced 1.5 percent failure in its machines, citing its experience in elections in other countries. The Comelec purchased more than 82,000 PCOS machines from Smartmatic-TIM. As of January 15, the Comelec has pegged the number of clustered precincts at 76,340. The nearly 6,000 extra machines are more than enough in case 1.5 percent of the machines in clustered precincts will suffer breakdowns, Rafanan said. But some lawmakers said the contingency rate raises doubts on the reliability of machines that will be used to count and transmit votes in the May elections. Parañaque City Rep. Roilo Golez said 30 percent "was not acceptable from a systems point of view." For Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, only around 5 percent could be "justified." Rafanan said he would bring the lawmakers' concerns before the Comelec en banc for review. But the official maintained that it was better to be highly prepared against any problem that might occur in May. "I hope they're not saying we should prepare less," Rafanan said. The preparations for the May 10 elections have been marred by significant delays. Last November, the poll body said election preparations were behind by a month from the original timeline. [See: Poll preparations behind by a month - Comelec] Smartmatic-TIM had then promised to initially deliver 42,200 PCOS units by the end of November, but the scheduled delivery was moved to December. At the end of last year, only 7,200 units were delivered due to costly shipping and traffic problems during the holiday season, according to the Comelec. [See: Costlier shipping delayed poll machine delivery - Comelec] Comelec chair Jose Melo said Smartmatic-TIM has since committed to deliver about 9,600 machines weekly. He also assured the public that all the 82,200 PCOS machines needed for the May polls would be delivered by February. - RJAB Jr./ GMANews.TV