MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 20, 2013) – A Filipino youth group called Anakbayan has warned of massive automated cheating as the Commission on Elections announced that it might not be able to acquire the source codes for the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines and there may not be enough time to review it.
Vencer Crisostomo, Anakbayan national chairperson, said these are “clear signs of trouble” for the May local and national elections and this should be cause for alarm.
“Is the Comelec setting up hocus PCOS to ensure automated victory of the administration candidates? The continued refusal of the Comelec to tell the public the real state of the automated elections is indicative of a lutong- makaw 2013 elections,” he said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The poll body insisted that cheating is impossible in the PCOS machines, but
Crisostomo dismissed this.
“In fact, cheating can be faster and more rampant. The problem is that it can be set-up in a way which is harder to detect. This is why we should be more vigilant and should demand a source code review,” he said, adding PCOS machines can be set-up to do an “automated dagdag-bawas” and “automatic victory for (President Benigno Aquono’s Team PNoy) yellow candidates.”
“Tests have shown that it can double count for some candidates and not count some candidates. The voting public will not have a means to verify the accuracy of the counting,” he said.
The watchdog group AESWatch have earlier warned of dangers with the automated elections system citing system failure and miscounts in the mock elections administered by Comelec.
Crisostomo also called on the public to be vigilant regarding the appointment of two new Comelec commissioners – lawyers Louie Guia and Al Parreño – less than a month before the elections.
“The two appointed can either assert the poll body’s independence form the Palace and save the sinking ship that is the 2013 elections, or further reinforce the Comelec’s failures and obvious yellow bias. Given the context of their appointment, however, and the Palace’s attempts to manipulate the elections, the latter seems more likely,” he said.
He called on the public to be more watchful as the elections near. “We should be more vigilant. The 2013 elections is turning out to be a project for massive yellow deception,” he said.
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