Smartmatic ready for May 9

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic International are ready for the May 9 polls, an official of Smartmatic said yesterday.

“It’s all systems go for the upcoming elections,” Elie Moreno, Smartmatic general manager for the Philippines, said after a mock election held yesterday at The STAR offices in Port Area, Manila.

“We have delivered all the vote counting machines (VCMs) and undergone an international certification review of our system with the Comelec through a US provider. We are also done with the hardware acceptance tests, software as well as local source code review,” Moreno said. The Comelec has received all the paraphernalia to be used for the coming polls.

Smartmatic said 92,509 VCMs will be used in the elections, with an additional 5,000 machines on standby as backup.       

Smartmatic said all the ballots have been printed and the technology to be used has been verified. The Comelec started the final testing and sealing of the VCMs on Monday.

According to Moreno, teachers who will serve as board of election inspectors (BEIs) have been testing the VCMs.

Lawyer Karen Jimeno, head of Smarmatic’s voter education committee, said they have delivered the VCMs and other election paraphernalia to the Comelec before the deadline.

“To put it simply, the ball is now in Comelec’s court, because they are the ones that will run the elections, it’s their people that will be running the counting machines,” Jimeno said.

She said Smartmatic’s technical field personnel would be on standby in case anything goes wrong on election day.

Smartmatic will set up a national support center to assist the BEIs who will operate the counting machines. One technician will be assigned in every polling center.

On the issue of power outage during the polls, Jimeno explained that the machines would automatically switch to the use of internal battery, which can last up to 14 hours. The machine is capable of charging the battery itself, she said.

Moreno said the VCM can different room temperatures, even the summer heat expected on Monday.

VCMs hack-free

The Comelec and Smartmatic assured the public that the VCMs are hack-free.

Jimeno explained that the VCMs are not connected to the Internet so hackers would not be able to access them.

“The encryption level of the VCM is 256 bits, which is higher than what most banking programs use for security, so it will take 50 years to hack the encryption of the machines,” she explained.

Smartmatic will also use an encrypted SD (Secure Digital) card for the machines with the signatures of the BEIs to prevent tampering of election results, Jimeno said.

Meanwhile, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) expressed concern over the last minute preparations of the Comelec with less than a week before the elections.

“We cannot say that anybody is prepared 100 percent for the elections,” PPCRV national chairperson Henrietta de Villa said.

If confusion mars the elections, the public might doubt the integrity of the polls, De Villa said.

An advocacy group questioned the Comelec’s compliance with the provisions of Republic Act 9369 or the Automated Election Law.

The Coalition of Clean Air Advocates of the Philippines (CCAAP) said the Comelec and Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) should issue a certification that the automated election system (AES), including its hardware and software components, are operating securely and accurately.

TEC is composed of the Department of Science and Technology, Information and Communications Technology Commission and the Comelec.

CCAAP president Herminio Buerano Jr. claimed that the Comelec and TEC failed to issue the mandatory certificate required by the automation law 90 days before the elections. – With Evelyn Macairan, Rhodina Villanueva