More than 3 out of 10 PCOS machines did not work as expected

News Release

May 16, 2013

Reference: Dr. Gani Tapang, Kontra Daya convenor

Chairman Sixto Brillantes has just removed the last pretense of transparency in the 2013 midterm polls by ordering a stop of the release of results to the supposed independent third-party count being done by the PPCRV and media outfits.

The PCOS machine supposedly transmits data to the transparency server after it sends it data to the canvassing server for third parties to verify the results of the election. As of noon of May 16, only around 76.13 % of the election returns have reported their data.

The slow transmission to the transparency server means that at more than 30 percent of all precincts have failed to transmit their data two days after elections and that around a quarter of the precincts have yet to send in their results. The PCOS machines did not work as expected. These numbers are worse than the performance of the machines in 2010.

According to reports that Kontra Daya received, these problems range from the PCOS machine failing to transmit either due to signal problems or its failure to read in the CF cards while transmitting.

Kontra Daya also pointed out that Smartmatic should not blame the teachers serving as the Board of Election Inspectors for the inadequacies of the Comelec-Smartmatic AES. The Comelec also cannot simply lay the blame on the telcos for the transmission woes. The Comelec should have tested the whole system end-to-end and ensured that the machines, CF cards, ballots and procedures work out on election day. No such end-to-end test took place.

We hold Chairman Brillantes, the Comelec and Smartmatic accountable for the problems in the AES.