Comelec trims clustered precincts to 73,000

Reclustering casts doubt on delivery of PCOS units

By Marie Surbano

11/19/2009

As the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced a plan to reduce the number of clustered precincts for next year’s automated polls from 80,000 to around 73,000, speculations were rife yesterday that the poll body resorted to re-clustering because Smartmatic International-Total Information Management, the consortium that won the P11.3-billion poll automation project, would not be able to deliver in full the 82,000 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines needed in 2010 national polls.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal explained, however, that the reduction in the number of clustered precincts would automatically increase the number of standby PCOS units ready to replace the machines that might bog down in the process of vote counting.

Under its contract with the Comelec, Smartmatic committed to deliver 82,000 PCOS units needed to fully automate the 2010 national polls. Of these PCOS machines, 2,200 units would serve as standby units.

Yesterday, Larrazabal reconfigured the use and distribution of PCOS machines throughout the country based on the planned re-clustering of the country’s 342,075 precincts. “Based on our initial survey, some of the clustered precincts have only 500 or 600 voters from five precincts. This means we would not be maximizing the use of the machines that can process up to 1,000 voters,” he said. “To remedy this, we would be clustering up to seven precincts with a maximum of 1,000 voters.”

The original plan was to transform the 342,075 precincts into 80,000 clustered precincts, each with five precincts to contain 1,000 voters. Larrazabal said the computation was made on the assumption all established precincts had a maximum of 200 registered voters each.

But the Comelec has to recluster the precincts, with seven precincts of 1,000 voters clustered into one, an approach that Larrazabal said would “maximize the use of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.”

Thus, Larrazabal said, the reduction in the number of clustered precincts would also mean there would be “less number of teachers or board of election inspectors to man the polling stations” and “more standby PCOS units to deploy for contingency measures.”

Comelec’s automation partner, Smartmatic-Total Information Management will deliver the first batch of around 42,000 PCOS machines in December to be followed by another 40,000 on January.

Meanwhile, the Comelec was considering a plan to install PCOS machines in three areas abroad.

James Jimenez, Comelec spokesman, said countries with large concentration of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were being considered by the poll body.

“There would be automated election system (abroad) but only in areas where there are a lot of Filipinos,” said Jimenez. He identified these areas as Singapore, Hong Kong and some countries in the Middle East. Based on records, there are 140,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong, more than 150,000 in Singapore and nearly 2 million Filipinos in the Middle East.

Jimenez also noted that since there would be PCOS machines voting, the Comelec would also require the oveseas absentee voters to personally appear in areas where PCOS units would be installed. Their personal appearance would be required because they had to feed their ballots into the counting machine.

The poll official said the PCOS machines would be brought to and stored in Philippine embassies and consulates.

Manual system will be used in other areas, he added.

Jimenez said they expect 750,000 registered OAVs to join in next year’s polls. In the 2007 polls, there were about 500,000 registered OAV voters.

As this developed, the House of Representatives approved Tuesday night on third and final reading a bill amending the Omnibus Election Code.

Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., chairman of the House committee on suffrages, said the proposed amendments to the Election Code as embodied in House Bill 6926 pertained to election campaign and partisan political activity outside the campaign period.

The bill, which Locsin authored, states that it is not unlawful for any person to undertake any form of partisan or political activity after the filing of the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) up to the start of the campaign period.

“Considering the hiatus that will occur from the time of filing of the COC from November 20 to 30, 2009 with the implementation of an Automated Election System in the 2010 National and Local Elections up to the campaign period, which shall commence sometime in March 2010, this will bring numerous legal issues that will drain the limited time and resources of the Commission on Elections (Comelec),” Locsin said.

Locsin cited a recent Supreme Court ruling on the case of Penera versus the Comelec (G.R. 18613), which has brought to fore the possible problems that may arise due to the interpretation on what constitutes premature election campaigning under Section 80 of the Omnibus Election Code. He said the petitioner, who was then a candidate for mayor of Sta. Monica, Surigao del Norte, was found guilty of violating the provision of the Election Code when she went around on a motorcade after filing her COC.

The Makati solon said amending Section 80 of the Election Code will avert the situation where the Comelec will be deluged with disqualification cases. With PNA

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