The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Cebu provincial office is ready for a possible reversion to manual counting instead of automated vote counting in the 2016 elections.
Ferdinand Gujilde, Cebu provincial elections officer, gave this assurance after the Supreme Court (SC) voided an agreement between Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM for the P300-million diagnostics and repair of 80,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines for next year’s polls.
“If there is a need to go back to manual, the Comelec is more than prepared. We have the experience,” he told reporters last Wednesday.
He said teachers who compose the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) have vast experience when it comes to reading and appreciating ballots.
Earlier this week, the SC said that the Comelec “failed to justify its resort to direct contracting” when it failed to bid out the contract for the diagnostics of the PCOS machines.
Gujilde said that with the recent SC decision , preparations for the 2016 polls will be affected.
There are several alternatives, he said, with manual counting as a last resort.
Options include the filing of a motion for reconsideration or bidding out services which were not bidded out.
Gujilde said that the bidding process would take as long as six months.
The challenge now, he said, is completing the bidding on schedule.
PCOS machines were first introduced in the Philippines during the 2010 elections but several complaints arose about malfunctioning units and accusations that results were rigged.