By Ferdinand G. Patinio
MANILA, Aug. 28 (PNA) — Although it will be using new voting machines for next year’s polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is confident that the May 2016 voting will be accurate.
Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim assured the public that the use of Optical Mark Readers (OMRs), which replaced the old Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, will give precise voting results.
“The bottom line is that it is what we want to be sure: the integrity of the counting process of the machines,” said the chairman of the Comelec–Steering Committee for the May 2016 elections.
He noted that it is the primary reason why they are undertaking an early review of the source code of the automated election system (AES) to be conducted by SLI Global Solutions, a United States-based firm.
“Basically, the SLI is here for an audit to make sure that one vote for (Secretary Mar) Roxas will be one vote for Roxas. One vote for (Vice President Jejomar) Binay will be one vote for Binay. One vote for (Senator Grace) Poe will be one vote for Poe. Not one vote equals five votes,” the poll body official said.
Lim added, “It’s a check and balance as a requirement also of R.A. 9369, to ensure that the system we are running is free from any possible malicious line.”
The contract between the Comelec and SLI is at USD766,000 or approximately PhP35 million.
On the other hand, the Comelec turned over the base source code of the OMR machines from the manufacturer, Smartmatic–Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation, to SLI after the signing of the contract on Friday.
SLI President and CEO Mark Phillips said they are set to start the review of the base source code next week.
“Our team will start on September 1 and the process goes through the end of December,” he said, adding that they are looking to submit a report to the Comelec early next year.
The review of the source code is required under Republic Act No. 9369.
The source code is the human readable instructions that dictate what the automated election system will do. (PNA)