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PALACE officials indicated on Thursday they understood the
position taken by the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
against holding automated polls in May, and would push
for the implementation of the administration measure “as
soon as the circumstances permit.”
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in an interview with
reporters that concerned groups should participate in
the administration’s election summit next month to help
ensure honest and clean elections, especially now that
the May 10 polls would again be manually executed.
“We know for a fact that the President has been one of the
prime movers of automation of elections, but this is one
of the realities we have to contend with. We understand
that there are some constraints as far as procurement is
concerned, we just have to try for automation as soon as
the circumstances permit,” Bunye said.
Asked how the government can ensure that there would be
honest and orderly elections without automated polls,
Bunye said this is “precisely why” the administration
has been asking all stakeholders to attend its election
summit next month.
“We hope that these questions could be ironed out during the
summit. You know, citizen’s participation will
definitely be a big plus and this I think will be the
essence of the election summit,” he said.
Comelec had said that it would be impossible to hold
automated elections on May 10 because of logistical and
time constraints. |
