The country’s first automated national polls were characterized by widespread cases of malfunctioning precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines and long queues at polling precincts. In many polling centers, elections have been delayed due to such technical glitches, aggravated by slow and poorly organized voting procedures, Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) members still familiarizing with the automated system, and IT consultants lacking skills. In some areas, problems were aggravated by power failure.  There were also reports of poll-related violence in several areas, mostly in Luzon and Mindanao.

But despite these major issues, Filipino voters nationwide still trooped to their respective polling centers. Kontra Daya salutes them for their strong desire to exercise their sovereign right to choose the country’s next set of political leaders. After nine years of the highly unpopular and despised Arroyo administration, the Filipino electorate does not want to let the opportunity pass to protest through the ballot the Arroyo regime.   

We are deeply saddened and alarmed, however, that such desire of the Filipino voters to participate in this year’s historic elections has been greatly undermined by the lack of preparations of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to carry out the automated polls as illustrated by the numerous cases of glitches monitored by Kontra Daya nationwide. The actual conduct of the automated election system (AES) confirmed the many issues and concerns repeatedly raised by Kontra Daya and other poll watchdogs in the past months, including Comelec’s lack of contingency plans, insufficient training for members of the BEI, time and motion studies, and the rigorous testing of the PCOS machines. These issues made the elections highly prone to failure and fraud, and at the minimum have disenfranchised many voters across the country.

We sympathize with the BEI members whom the Comelec placed in the front lines of the automated polls despite very poor and inadequate training. They were often at the receiving end of the ire of many voters disgruntled by the problematic voting process when in reality, it is the Comelec and private firm Smartmatic-TIM, that must be held accountable by the electorate for these issues.

The clustering of precincts, thereby increasing the number of voters per precinct, coupled with the lack of preparedness by Comelec, Smartmatic and the BEI’s, led the many scenes of chaos, confusion and frustration among voters.

The Comelec cannot claim success because of the many problems encountered by the voters today. Comelec should at the very least apologize to the voting public for the poor preparations of the automated polls. 

Kontra Daya, which has been closely monitoring the conduct of today’s polls since 6 AM, noted the following major trends:

• PCOS failures were monitored across the country, many in Luzon, with several reports coming from NCR;
• First time voters disenfranchised as they are not included in the voter’s list, several incidents monitored in NCR;
• Disgruntled voters leaving the polling centers due to slow voting process, many cases reported throughout the country;
• Several incidents of of pre-shaded ballots, vote buying, etc in Luzon, mostly in NCR, and many in Mindanao;
• Several cases of election-related violence monitored nationwide, many in Mindanao;
• Delayed voting is prevalent nationwide, with the delays reaching as late as 12 noon like the cases in Lubao and Bacolor and Pampanga; 1 to 2 hours of delays in voting were common; and
• Sporadic power failures were also monitored, contributing to delays in voting.

Comelec, Smartmatic and the Arroyo government, are ultimately responsible for these widespread problems. We will join the people in demanding accountability after the May elections. ###