CenPEG slams Comelec for denial of poll data access

08/18/2010

The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), in a statement issued yesterday, deplored the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) denial of a long-standing request by the UP-based policy institution for copies of 21 documents issued in connection with the May 10 automated elections.

The Comelec en banc decision dated July 6, contained in Minute Resolution No. 10-0650, gave no reason for denying CenPEG’s request, its executive director Evita Jimenez said

The en banc decision was received by CenPEG only last week with a letter dated July 26 from Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino Jr. of the controversial secrecy folder scam.

“The denial is a transgression

of the people’s right to public information,” Jimenez said. “This belies the Comelec’s claim of transparency on the automated elections and violates voters’ right to know what really happened in the national and local polls”

The request, signed and sent to the Comelec by Jimenez and other CenPEG directors on June 3, was prompted by increasing reports of technical failures and other irregularities in the May 10 elections giving rise to questions on the accuracy and credibility of the political exercise.

A few weeks earlier, CenPEG had asked Congress to call for an independent and impartial appraisal of the elections. The CenPEG position was supported by the broad citizens’ poll watchdog Automated Election System (AES) Watch, academic groups, and other organizations.

The documents cited in the CenPEG letter include the AES source codes, Comelec-Smartmatic contract, report of PCOS transmissions on May 10 and thereafter, and inventory of compact flash (CF) cards used for the final testing and sealing (FTS) as well as re-configured CF cards.

In its June 3 letter, CenPEG said “An objective study can only be done if pertinent data and information shall be accessible and available to researchers and scholars, so that a no-nonsense body of knowledge can be developed in the interest of public service and good governance.’’

The policy think tank also gave assurances that a copy of the CenPEG election study will be furnished Comelec.

Jimenez said however that the Comelec decision is not new. There had been numerous letters issued not only by CenPEG but other concerned groups and individuals asking for access to election-related public documents and for the poll body to be true to its claim of transparency. “But all these efforts that were actually designed to promote fair, credible, and transparent elections came to naught,” Jimenez said

“Is Comelec hiding something from the public?” Jimenez asked

Until the full disclosure of the documents being requested is done and the claim of transparency is matched by action serious questions raised by watchdogs, Congress members, and other groups on the AES will remain unsolved and plans to use the same technology in future elections will be closely scrutinized, CenPEG said.

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