PARTY-LIST Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna said on Saturday that only the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and its computer service supplier, Smartmatic, are to blame for any glitch or delay that may happen in the May 9 elections.
Zarate made the statement following the Comelec’s threat that the elections may be postponed because of the Supreme Court decision requiring the poll body to issue vote receipts.
“Both the Comelec and Smartmatic are to blame for any glitch, delay or even an election failure. Since 2010 the Comelec and Smartmatic have deliberately violated the election laws that expressly require Voter Verification Paper Audit Trail, or the issuance of voter receipts as minimum system capability,” Zarate said.
“The Court’s decision is a slap on the Comelec’s face that has been defiant stand since 2010. This voter receipt is not a new issue. Thus, the Comelec and Smartmatic should have been prepared for it. They could not just pull the ‘no elections’ bogey to scare the electorate and get away with not fulfilling the duty to provide a glitch-free and credible elections,” he added.
“The postponement of the May 9 elections will only fuel the growing distrust of our people on the now clouded automated electoral process. And who will benefit from this? Only this exiting lame duck Aquino administration that has P7- billion deal with Smartmatic. Any glitch, postponement, or noncompliance with election requirements is simply unacceptable,” Zarate added.
“In fact, the Comelec’s continuing deal with Smartmatic is highly suspicious,” the party-list lawmaker noted. “The automated elections in 2010 and 2013 were marred by transmission glitches, program errors and other system failures. It caused the disfranchisement of a large number of voters,” Zarate recalled.
“This new billion-peso deal should have ironed out these glitches and lapses. Yet, here we are, two months from election day, and this wicked tandem is dangling the possibility of a no-election scenario,” he stressed.
“Credible elections in the Philippines are far from happening when the Comelec itself is sabotaging the elections. As in the past, the coming elections will be replete with cheating and fraud. The Comelec allowed our election process to be at the mercy of a foreign-controlled and private corporation, and, now we are once again being held hostage by this flawed process,” he also said.