Poll officials' resignation sought in case of failure of elections

Militant poll watchdog Kontra Daya on Tuesday asked for the resignation of the officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should the May automated polls fail. “What we just want is for them is to come out with a declaration, na kapag nagkaraoon ng (that if there is) failure of elections, whether it is their own making or not, they should take full responsibility for that," Kontra Daya convenor Fr. Jose Dizon told reporters in an interview. Dizon said that this would “lessen" the public’s doubts on the success of the country’s first nationwide automated elections. He even said that Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, who chairs the poll body’s steering committee on automation, had promised them that he would resign should the situation require it. "We will take them to their word," he said. Larrazabal, however, denied giving such promise, only admitting that an "internal agreement" had been reached among Comelec officials should the automated elections fail. He did not elaborate. "These are things that we have discussed. May internal agreement na kami doon, it was just not made public lang (We have an internal agreement, it was just not made public)," he said. Core goal Larrazabal said their "core goal" is still to be able to conduct a credible and successful election. "Everybody wants successful elections. We have the intent to conduct a successful and credible elections, no one naman has the monopoly of good intentions for the country, everybody should have the same intentions," he said. Kontra Daya had earlier expressed doubts on whether the poll body would be able to pull off the fully automated elections. The group doubts whether the Comelec would be able to test all the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in 45 days, since the poll body said it would need 300 people working 24/7 to achieve this. It likewise expressed concern for the difficulty in ballot feeding and results transmission in some areas. In addition, the group questioned whether there would be enough time for 1,000 voters to vote in one precinct on election day. Larrazabal assured the group that everything is going well with the automation preparations. “There will be no failure of elections," he said. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV