Comelec urged to disclose documents related to May 10 polls

An election watchdog has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disclose all documents, including the source code of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, related to the conduct of the May 2010 polls. In a letter addressed to Comelec Chairman Jose Melo dated September 28, poll watchdog Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) urged the poll body to release 15 election-related documents, including the source code and user manual of the PCOS machines. Former Vice President and CenPEG board member Teofisto Guingona Jr., one of the signatories of the letter, said the group is asking for full disclosure of these documents "in the spirit of transparency." "We must pursue this battle up to the very end. We demand the Comelec to provide us the data desired and required and the letter so that this pursuit for transparency can be fully done," Guingona said in a speech during the group’s post-election session on Tuesday in San Juan City. GMANews.TV called up Melo’s office to confirm whether or not it has received CenPEG’s letter, but the poll official’s staffers have yet to reply as of posting time. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, for his part, declined to comment on CenPEG’s statements, saying he wants to read first the group’s full assessment of the just concluded automated polls. SC resolution In a resolution released days before the May 10 polls, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the Comelec to disclose all documents related to conduct of the elections. (See: SC gives Comelec 2 days to disclose all poll preparations) In response to the high court order, the Comelec sent copies of various resolutions and a compact disc containing the PCOS machine specifications to CenPeg. But Guingona said the documents "were totally lacking in providing the information… for a complete study of the automated election system used in the May 10 elections." Legal remedies For her part, CenPEG executive director Evita Jimenez said the poll body should all the more release the documents her group requested since the SC has already ordered Comelec to disclose the source code or the human-readable version of the computer programs used to run the PCOS machines used in the past polls. (See: SC to Comelec: Disclose May 2010 polls source code) "We cannot fully evaluate the success or failure of the May 2010 polls if the Comelec will not cooperate," she told GMANews.TV in a separate interview. Jimenez added that her group will be "constrained" to "seek appropriate legal remedies" against the Comelec if the poll body will not grant their request. Among the other documents requested by the poll watchdog were: public keys used by PCOS computers, network topology diagram and documentation, digital signing protocols, full copy of the contract entered into by the Comelec with Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, and a complete copy of the report of the Technical Evaluation Committee on the May 2010 polls. ‘The main problem was Comelec’ In his initial assessment of the country’s first ever automated polls, CenPEG’s information technology (IT) consultant Pablo Manalastas said the “main problem" during the past polls was Comelec itself. "The automated election system promoted a culture of ‘expertism’ and election as a profit-making industry… The constitutional sanctity of the vote was violated because of lack of safeguards, security and accuracy," Manalastas said in a speech in the same gathering. Manalastas added that the Comelec’s implementation of the election system made it "vulnerable to technical and management errors" and "favorable to electoral cheating" "Speed appears to have been prioritized over the more important important imperatives of accuracy, security, transparency and reliability," he said. The IT expert likewise said the automated election system must be thoroughly reviewed since there is a possibility that the same system will be used again in the 2013 and 2016 polls. — RSJ, GMANews.TV