Filtered By: Topstories
News

Postponing elections 'the only remedy,’ Arroyo lawyer says


(Update 2 - 11:22 p.m.) The Commission on Elections (Comelec) can still exercise the option to postpone the May 10 polls, the election lawyer of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Tuesday. Romulo Macalintal offered this legal opinion in the wake of widespread glitches that occurred in the testing of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines on Monday, which led Comelec to reset its test schedules to May 6 or 7 with barely three days to fix all technical problems before election day. To avert election failure, which may be brought about by extensive malfunctioning of the voting machines, the poll body can still defer elections by at least 15 days, Macalintal said. “Postponement of election is the only remedy to prevent a failure of election," he said, citing the Omnibus Election Code. "Comelec en banc, on its own, based on serious cause like the apparent failure of PCOS machines to properly and correctly function, is authorized under Section 5 of the Omnibus Election Code to postpone the polls," Macalintal said. Fifteen days would be enough to give Comelec additional time to print extra forms for manual tally and canvass, he said. "This is not the time to blame anybody but the time to solve this serious problem," he added.
Earlier, independent presidential bet Nicanor Perlas also petitioned the poll body to postpone the elections should it fail to address questions about the automated system, including the need for a parallel manual count. (See: Perlas asks Comelec to postpone May elections) 'Not in the realm of possibility' Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, however, said that postponing the elections was not in the "realm of possibility." "There will be no failure of election, therefore there is no need for a postponement of the elections," he told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. Comelec Rene Sarmiento had earlier said that there will only be failure of elections if people fail to vote. He said that the Comelec rules of procedure provide that in the case of a national failure of elections, voting will be suspended and a verified petition must be filed with the Comelec. A due notice and hearing must then be conducted to determine when the next elections can be conducted, which should not be later than 30 days after the day of the elections. Postponement unconstitutional? In an earlier interview, Comelec chairman Jose Melo said that to postpone the elections is "unconstitutional." Article VII Section 4 of the Philippine Constitution provides that "Unless otherwise provided by law, the regular election for President and Vice-President shall be held on the second Monday of May." Section 5 of the Omnibus Election Code says that an election can only be postponed "for any serious cause such as violence, terrorism, loss or destruction of election paraphernalia or records, force majeure, and other analogous causes of such a nature that the holding of a free, orderly and honest election should become impossible in any political subdivision." Jimenez, however, said even if there might be way to postpone the elections, they are not considering that option. "It doesn’t matter, our mandate is to hold elections and that is what we will do," he said. Reconfiguring CF cards Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, for his part, said that people should just focus on "what needs to be done." "What we'd like is to focus on the solution and what is the problem," he said, adding that they have begun the reconfiguration of the compact flash (CF) cards which were the cause of the problems for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines. (See: Smartmatic assumes responsibility for PCOS machine glitches) "It really works," he told GMANews.TV in a separate interview. Back to manual? Other groups have meanwhile renewed their calls for a partial manual count, or even a reversion to fully manual count. In an interview aired over GMA News' 24-Oras newscast, Lito Averia of the Automated Election System Watch said Comelec should start preparations for a manual count not just of 30 percent, but even up to 50 percent of the vote.
"Kung halimbawa, ang maideliver nila, 50 percent ng 76,000. Di ba meron silang sinasabi na Comelec is preparing, naghahanda sila para sa 30 percent manual count. Ibig sabihin, 30 percent ng mga presinto. That would be about 25,000 precincts. Pero kung ang maideliver nila e kalahati lang ng 76,000. What do you do with the other 15 [thousand]? Dapat paghandaan na rin ng Comelec iyan sa manual count," Averia said. (If, for example, they are able to deliver 50 percent of the 76,000. Now they've been saying that Comelec is preparing for a 30-percent manual count. That would be about 25,000 precincts. But what if they could only deliver half of the 76,000? What do you do with the other 15,000? So Comelec should also prepare for that in its manual count.) Another civil society group, the Black and White Movement, also pushed for the scrapping of the automated polls and reverting to the manual system, saying that the recent glitches have “irreversibly" crushed public confidence in the system. "[The manual system] may take longer to determine the results, but it is much better than producing results in a day or two that no one will believe anyway," it said in a statement on its blog site. "Errors in feeding of ballots, or even in transmissions are bad enough, but forgivable. But errors in counting are simply unacceptable," it said. The group said that even if the Comelec were successful in recalling, reconfiguring and redeploying the 76,000 flash cards, many test runs are needed to regain people's trust and confidence. "With less than a week to go, there is simply no time. It would be foolish for Comelec to proceed with the automation without the trust of candidates and voters. Every losing candidate would demand a recount, by simply claiming a possible glitch in the PCOS," it added. For its part, the Concerned Citizens Movement, the civil society group that attempted to halt the automated election scheme in the Supreme Court, has called the current situation as "the impending failure of elections." Prof. Harry Roque Jr., spokesman for the group, said they are exploring "legal options against the Comelec" for allegedly bringing about this problem. - With Kimberly Jane T. Tan/RJAB Jr./JV, GMANews.TV
LOADING CONTENT