"Although I believe Smartmatic and TIM have kissed and made up, public interest dictates that the Comelec should guarantee that the marriage will no longer have another hitch and will last until after the election automation contract has been fully implemented," said Plaza, one of the leading 2010 senatorial bets of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).

Plaza had earlier filed a House resolution for a congressional inquiry into the reported break up between Smartmatic and its local partner, TIM. This will however, now be withdrawn, as the two have reconciled.

Even then, he stressed that the possibility of another break up should not be discounted.

"It is certain that this being a honeymoon period for the two partners, there will be no real disagreements as yet, but no harm will be committed if Comelec will appoint an inside observer to make the marriage stronger," Plaza explained.

While he said he welcomes Plaza’s proposal, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the matter should be studied carefully.

"An overseer will make sure that everything in the contract is followed to the letter," Jimenez said.

Nograles, lauding Comelec Chairman Jose Melo for not giving up on the poll automation project which had earlier this week been threatened by the partner’s internal differences, said, "I’m glad to hear that there seems to be a brighter prospect of reconciliation between Smartmatic and its local partner, the TIM, following arbitration dialogs led by Comelec Chairman Jose Melo," Nograles said through a text message.

"I just hope that instead of instigating a break-up between the two partners who are key in ensuring the success of our 2010 polls, our political leaders should compel them to mend their differences and deliver their commitment for a clean, honest and automated election," he added calling on poll automation critics to put a halt to intriguing the Comelec and just let the poll body "do its job."

But Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño said that even with the resolution of the disputes between TIM and Smartmatic, the Comelec should compel both parties to divulge to the public the details of their differences and how they were resolved.

"It is a matter of public interest that Smartmatic and TIM should disclose what caused their feud, how it was resolved and who were involved. This is not a private matter between lovers," said Casiño.

But for CenPeg ( Center for People Empowerment in Governance), the consortium partners Smartmatic and TIM may have reconciled their differences around the bidding process but the nature of their joint venture has already tainted the preparations for the May 2010 automated polls.

It added that the Comelec has not resolved the more important question about the integrity of the vendors who will fully automate and manage the whole electoral exercise.

"Time has run out and to be able to go around their timetable is to short cut many processes especially in the software programming that will run the election system nationwide," CenPeg, a think tank based in the University of the Philippines yesterday said.

Prof. Bobby Tuazon, CenPeg political analyst, said the reported patching up of the bid partners is no guarantee it will be smooth sailing all the way and the 2010 automated elections clean and credible. He said "the Comelec has to hurdle more problems at hand and ahead if it aims to make the May 2010 automated elections clean and credible."

Tuazon said that the poll body should now make a full disclosure of the terms agreed upon between the consortium and the poll body, particularly on the disbursement of payment.

"The scandal that has wracked and tainted the transaction cannot be erased unless there is a full disclosure and transparency of all documents and terms related to the project," Tuazon said.

"The mess that’s now hurting the automated election process is Comelec’s own doing," Tuazon said.

"In its haste to fast-track the automated elections, the poll body has been short-cutting procedures and preparations and bending its own rules including the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the bidding," CenPeg said.

"Unless Comelec fixes its own management style in the middle of the bail game, the whole country will end up with a failure of elections not only because of wholesale electronic cheating but also Comelec’s own mismanagement."

With the two-month delay in the election preparations, Comelec will now be forced to short-cut everything else including the customization and configuration of machine, manufacturing and deployment of the 82,000 optical mark reader units, training of election personnel, printing of ballots, and other activities, Tuazon said.

This will leave the Comelec all the more ignoring demands for safeguards to be instituted in the automated election system (AES).

CenPeg wrote the Comelec last May 26 asking the source code of the technology to be reviewed first as required by RA 9369 but the official request remains unanswered to this day.

In its ongoing study on the AES, CenPeg has spotted at least 30 vulnerable areas of the whole system that if left unfixed or without safeguards will result in the elections being manipulated by internal rigging and other forms of cheating

It took the Senate committee on constitutional amendments in a June 23 hearing to find that Comelec has, among other lapses, not done its work in verifying the bid documents of the vendors especially Smartmatic-T!M. And the poll needs to pacify concerns in the wake of allegations that powerful politicians are dipping their fingers into the transaction in an attempt to control the technology and, hence, manipulate the whole system in favor of certain candidates and political parties, Tuazon added.

"Is Comelec ignoring its own bidding rule for vendors to attest to their political neutrality and that they are not violating the legal doctrine of conflict of interest?" Tuazon said

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