Namfrel gives up bid to be Comelec’s citizen arm

The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) has given up its bid for accreditation as the citizen arm of the Commission on Elections in the May 10 elections, but not before taking potshots at the poll body. Namfrel said its fight is going nowhere, and that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is “not interested" in its help, but it added it will keep an eye on preparations for the polls. “It’s obvious that the Comelec is not interested in Namfrel’s assistance," Namfrel head Jose Cuisia Jr. said in an article posted Saturday on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site. Namfrel, which pioneered the unofficial parallel quick count during elections in the country, had as co-petitioner for accreditation the CBCP National Secretariat for Social Action – Justice and Peace (Nassa-JP). As a result of Namfrel’s withdrawal, only one other citizen poll watchdog – the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) – will be allowed to receive separate official copies of ballots cast during the May elections. Based on these ballots, the PPCRV will be able to undertake an independent, unofficial quick count, providing a comparison to official results Comelec would be releasing in the course of the counting of votes. Namfrel, a Comelec partner since the 1980s, will be unable to enjoy that privilege. Moreover, unlike the PPCRV, Namfrel will not have volunteers observing and monitoring the conduct of elections at the precinct level. With only less than two months before the polls, Namfrel continues to doubt the Comelec’s ability to conduct, let alone ensure success of the country’s first nationwide automated polls. "We're not optimistic but we hope for the best," Namfrel spokesman Eric Alvia told GMANews.TV. “There is a growing feeling of mistrust among the public which has fueled a great deal of speculation that the elections will fail, seriously derailing the development of a mature democracy for the Philippines," Namfrel said in a statement. Comelec playing favorites? Namfrel, questioned why only the PPCRV was accredited as a citizen arm. "The exclusion of more experienced and more objective organizations seem to raise questions as to why the Comelec is so exclusive, rather than more inclusive," it said in the same statement. In an en banc resolution, the Comelec cited the PPCRV’s reliability in conducting poll watchdog activities in past elections. The PPCRV was also accredited for the 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2007 national and local elections. In December, Namfrel asked the Comelec to allow them to conduct or be involved in the manual audit and external parallel count for the May elections. PPCRV objected to Namfrel's petition for accreditation, saying that the poll body had already awarded them the tasks that the quick count expert was asking for. Later on, the Comelec denied Namfrel’s petition for accreditation. Namfrel then filed a motion for reconsideration, which it has now withdrawn. Namfrel did not only question the denial of its petition but also the bidding process for the suppliers of automated poll machines. It said that since the beginning, questions have been raised about the awarding of the P7.2 billion automation contract to poll machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM, but that the poll body has done nothing about it. "We have seen (the) Comelec extend tremendous leniency to Smartmatic not only in terms of front loaded payments and fees but accommodating major changes to the contract that sometimes cross the boundaries of what is legal," it said. Last November, the poll body said that election preparations were behind by a month from the original timeline. But it blamed the one-month delay in the delivery of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines on the group Concerned Citizens’ Movement (CCM). The CCM was the group that filed a case with the Supreme Court asking the tribunal to void the allegedly illegal poll automation contract between Smartmatic/TIM and the Comelec. The court ruled in favor of Comelec. Smartmatic-TIM then promised to initially deliver 42,200 PCOS units by the end of November. However, the scheduled delivery was later moved to December. At the end of the year, only 7,200 units were delivered due to costly shipping and traffic problems during the holiday season, according to the Comelec. Smartmatic-TIM has since committed to deliver about 9,600 machines weekly. All the machines were delivered to the country one day before the deadline set last February 28. Comelec lacking? Last October, the poll body commissioned international software testing company SysTest Labs to conduct the official and independent review of the source code, or the software that will be be used in the May polls. It then opened the source code for public review. The source code is crucial in determining whether the PCOS machines do the counting of votes properly and that there are no holes or trap doors that can corrupt data or be used for cheating. But Namfrel said that the guidelines of the source code review given out by the poll body were too restrictive, making concerned parties lose interest. Earlier, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that only the Liberal Party expressed their intention to review the code. Aside from this, the poll watchdog asked the poll body to increase the number of voting machines that will undergo random manual auditing. The group said that at least 2.5 to 3 percent of the 82,200 PCOS units or five poll machines per congressional district should be manually audited to give enough assurance that the results of the elections are credible. The law provides that only one machine per congressional district be randomly audited, though it does not say when to do it. Namfrel likewise asked the Comelec to shape up in its attempts to cleanse the list of voters before the book of voters closes on March 26. Earlier, the PPCRV reported that there were more than 40,000 double registrants in Davao City and Davao del Sur. Militant watchdog Kontra Daya also said that the voters' list for the May polls is padded by five million. But aside from this, Namfrel said it was also worried about the transmission connectivity service during the elections. During the May polls, the Comelec will be needing GSM network radio signals - the same kind used by cellular mobile phones for calls and SMS - to transmit the election results from the precinct to other servers. However, some PCOS machines had trouble transmitting the needed data during the mock polls. "The Comelec has to firm up its automated and manual contingency plans to cope with this scenario," said the watchdog. The poll body said that they can always use satellite transmission or Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) for areas which have no available cellular signal. On another note, Namfrel said it was also concerned with the suggestion of Esmeralda Ladra, head of the Comelec printing committee, that the poll body prepare a contingency plan should they fail to meet the output of ballots required by the elections. Earlier, Comelec chairman Jose Melo also said that the poll body was failing to meet its required output of 800,000 ballots per day, thus the need for the fifth printer. And lastly, the poll watchdog questionned the reliability of the three forwarding firms who have been tasked to deliver the PCOS machines and ballot boxes to the different provinces. "With the geography of the Philippines the way it is the capability of the three winning courier firms leaves much to be desired for them to undertake the delivery and deployment task in which none of them have had any experience," it said. Earlier, the Comelec enlisted the services of forwarding firms Germalin Enterprises (National Capital Region), Ace Logistics (North and South Luzon), and Argo Forwarders (Visayas and Mindanao) for the transportation of the poll machines and ballot boxes. Melo said they decided to leave the delivery of all the election materials to the three companies so that there will be no more confusion, just like how it awarded the contract to manufacture the ballot boxes to poll machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM. Comelec answers Larrazabal said that it's the decision of Namfrel to withdraw their petition. "It's their call if they want to do that, we can't stop them from doing that, it's their decision, not ours," he told GMANews.TV But Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said that even before that Namfrel withdrew its bid, the Comelec en banc had already denied their motion. "Two or three na banc sessions ago, the Comelec en banc denied na yung (the) motion for reconsideration," he said. He said that accrediting them would only double the functions that were already awarded to the PPCRV. Meanwhile, Larrazabal defended the source code review, saying that it is not the poll body's fault that the parties had no qualified specialists who would be able to review the software. He also said that they will create a watchlist that would prevent suspected double or multiple registrants from voting more than once in the May polls. He said that as prescribed by a previous Comelec resolution, double or multiple registrants may still vote but only in the precinct where he or she last registered. He said the list will just help the BEIs determine whether a voter should be voting in another precinct. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez added that the Comelec will be creating a webpage called "Alma's Death List" where the public can report deaths, in the process helping them cleanse the list of voters. "Alma" is Spanish for soul. On the other hand, Larrazabal admitted that they have yet to formulate the general instructions for the random manual audit. But Larrazabal said that they have also drafted the contingency plans for the transmission of results, which may be viewed by Namfrel if they wish to. He said that the poll body said that they can always use satellite transmission or Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) for areas which have no available cellular signal. And to ease the printing of ballots, he said that they will be adding another Kodak printer from China which should be operational by April 5. "Before that memo was issued, there's already a plan to bring in additional printers. And in fact the printer is being shipped to the country as we speak," he said. Melo had also earlier said that the forwarding firms that they hired have had a long-standing history with the Comelec. Argo worked with the Comelec during the 2007 national and 2008 ARMM elections. Germalin also worked with the poll body in the 2007 polls. Sarmiento, for his part, said that he still wishes to work with the Namfrel in the coming polls. "(They) are my friends, it's also painful that we're not working with Namfrel," he said. Alvia said that the Namfrel has launched the Bantay ng Bayan and Bilang ng Bayan as their response to what's needed in the May polls. - GMANews.TV