Editorial

Stuck on manual

Politicians are getting in the way of the nation’s achievement of a fully automated election next year.

Commission on Elections Chairman Jose Melo said that while the House of Representatives had approved the P11.3-billion supplemental budget for next year’s polls, congressmen made the fund release conditional. They now want to limit the automated system to national positions.

This hybrid scheme would thus retain the manual system of voting, counting and canvassing for local positions, including representatives to the House.

Melo told senators that this system would cost the government P5 billion more while remaining susceptible to cheating in the local level.

Not that project cost is immaterial to the Comelec. In fact, the agency had recommended the use of the Precinct Count Optical Scan over that of Direct Recording Electronic because the latter was deemed “too expensive.” The Comelec was also advised to look into leasing automation equipment as an alternative to buying.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said House members were concerned with the availability of voting results at the precinct level. If this were the only consideration, surely the technology can be tweaked to churn out hard copies of the results at any level.

Instead, the hybrid proposal tells us these lawmakers’ need to secure their own victory takes precedence over everything else. What is particularly galling is that the House, by making the release of the much-needed funds conditional, asserts its appropriation powers in order to have its way. What brazen arm-twisting.

This far, senators’ assurances of immediate and unconditional release of the supplemental budget for full automation are comforting—until one realizes that much depends, nonetheless, on members of the House. If they do not act soon, a congressional recess threatens to push back the approval of the measure. By then it may be too late for the Comelec to prepare for automated polls.

Either way, the House gets the manual system that traditional politicians know and love.