Glitches stop PCOS delivery

CEBU, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has issued a directive that the deployment of the PCOS machines to the polling centers, and the conduct of the final testing and sealing, are suspended until such time as the configuration for local positions is corrected.

Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino Jr. in a memorandum, a copy of which was furnished to The Freeman, said that since “the conduct of yesterday’s final testing and sealing in some areas revealed glitches in the configuration for local positions, there is a need to suspend the conduct of final testing and sealing in all areas until such time as the configuration for local positions shall have been corrected.”

According to a report over ANC, a wrong configuration in the compact flash (CF) cards resulted in the failure of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to read votes for local candidates placed on the second row of the ballot. The incorrect tally results were monitored in Makati, Pateros, and Batangas.

Cesar Flores, President of Smartmatic admitted the flaw in the testing and sealing of the PCOS machines and needed to narrow it down.

He said that once the problem is addressed, the automated polls will be “flawless.”

Flores said the defect was merely a human error and can be remedied by recalling the memory cards, replacing then with new ones formatted with the proper configuration.

The error, he said prompted the Comelec to suspend the sealing and testing of the ballots for two days to give way to contingency measures.

Replacement CF cards will be shipped out tonight. Testing and sealing of the PCOS machines will resume Thursday.

It was learned that the cost of the shipping, replacement, and reconfiguration of cards will be shouldered by Smartmatic-TIM, but arrangements of logistics are still being planned.

According to Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, an inventory of the recalled memory cards will be undertaken. Afterwhich, these will be turned over to the PPCRV and then destroyed.

“I-configure pa ang machines para ma-corrected ang discrepancy sa local position kay ang national ra mao ang dawaton,” lawyer Lionel Marco Castillaño, Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor said.

 Some of the 82,200 machines tested last Monday failed to read the names of candidates, forcing a recall of the software used.

POSTPONE POLLS

Following reports of failure of the PCOS when tested in Manila, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña again reasserted his reservations on the automated elections.

He appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to postpone the elections to a later date instead of May 10 so there will be time to go back to the manual voting system.– with Jessica Ann Pareja and Johanna Natavio/NLQ   (FREEMAN NEWS)