Palace wants glitches fixed after errors in mock polls

MANILA, Philippines - Glitches encountered during last Saturday’s mock elections should be addressed to ensure orderly and credible polls in May, Malacañang said on Sunday.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. noted that the mock polls have shown the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the possible problems it may encounter during the actual transmission of votes.

“It also showed Comelec the potential glitches that need to be addressed in terms of transmission and other technical problems that could hamper voting and the sending of results. All of these concerns need to be addressed to ensure the conduct of honest, orderly and credible elections this coming May,” Coloma told state-run radio station dzRB.

Coloma said the mock elections was also beneficial to voters as it allowed them to experience the actual situation in polling precincts and learn more about the process of casting their ballots.

“The exercise underscored the need to create heightened awareness among voters on what they need to do to be able to perform their civic duty properly,” he said.

Coloma cited the need to further enhance the voters’ education program to prepare voters for the upcoming polls.

“This will also speed up the voting process on the day of the election,” he said in Filipino.

Last Saturday’s mock polls simulated the voting process from preparation, voting, counting, consolidation, canvassing and transmission of votes from the polling centers to the canvassing centers to the national data center based at the Comelec warehouse in Sta. Rosa Laguna.

The accuracy of the vote counting machines was also assessed through a random manual audit.  

The simulation was held after the poll body had fixed the glitches discovered last week by SLI Global Solutions, the Denver-based international certifier, on the source codes of consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) and the vote counting machines.

SLI had found that CCS source code was not compatible with the election management system, which has important information like the name of candidates, ballot serial numbers and details about some polling precincts.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said the voting during the mock polls was too slow as most voters took their time in picking their candidates. Voters were also seen arriving in trickles during the first hour of voting, prompting Bautista to call on the public to come early to vote. Poll officials, nevertheless, claimed incidents of ballot rejection were minimal.