NBOC resumes session on alleged poll irregularities

Starting nearly an hour behind schedule, the National Board of Canvassers on Thursday resumed its session to seek clarification from the Commission on Elections and technology supplier Smartmatic on the alleged irregularities during the May 10 polls. When the NBOC suspended session Wednesday night, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri proposed that they start the hearing an hour earlier than their 2 p.m. original schedule because they start the proceedings usually an hour late. As in the previous day, Thursday's session started late – 55 minutes behind the 1 p.m. schedule. Present on the session hall to answer questions were Comelec chairman Jose Armando Melo, Commissioners Nicodemo Ferrer, Rene Sarmiento, Gregorio Larrazabal, executive director Jose Tolentino and Smartmatic Asia Pacific president Cesar Flores. Also attending the third day of the joint session were telecommunications officers who were invited as guest speakers. Officials from Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Globe Telecoms, and SingTel Philippines, among others, were invited to answer some questions on network security and other concerns during the May 10 automated polls. Flores, on the other hand, reiterated to Senate President Enrile that Compact Flash cards, inserted in the counting machines, could not be reprogrammed. Comelec and Smartmatic submitted to the NBOC a number of documents, these are: - The official and actual number of registered voters; - A printout of computations and breakdown of erroneous sum of registered voters that were encrypted; - A detailed explanation why the program error was committed and who committed the error; - A list of names of Smartmatic personnel involved in the erroneous program; - The systems test report; - A report on the initialization of the total number of registered voters; - A report on where the test happened and when they became aware of the erroneous program; - A comprehensive report submitted by technical review panel by the Department of Science and Technology; - A print out of the lowest threshold used in canvassing; - A written explanation for non-compliance on digital signatures; and - Certified true copy of certifications from an international certification body and the technical review panel. At the end of the session last Wednesday, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said they have covered most of the issues regarding the alleged irregularities during the polls, and that the panel could already start canvassing of votes for president and vice president by Friday. [See: Enrile: Actual canvassing could start Friday] — with Mark Merueñas/LBG, GMANews.TV