MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / May 7, 2013) – Youth group Anakbayan expressed alarm over the widespread errors and defects of the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines and said the Automated Election System is highly vulnerable to tampering and manipulation by the Aquino administration.
“The level of negligence and incompetence by the Commission on Elections is beyond belief. This can no longer be dismissed as human error. We believe this is part of a deliberate nationwide scheme to rig the 2013 elections for a 12-0 win by President Aquino’s candidates,” Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of Anakbayan, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Initial reports from volunteers of the election watchdog group Kontra Daya in Metro Manila and Davao showed several problems in the FTS, including: First, because of the lack of proper equipment from the Commission on Elections, many Boards of Election Inspectors used packing tape to seal the PCOS machines, instead of the special tape which would protect the said machines from tampering.
Second, many machines had problems with tabulating votes, such as counting wrongly-shaded votes, and not counting certain votes. Third, the FTS did not include the testing of the process of transmitting the votes from the PCOS machines to the canvassing machines in the municipal and national levels.
“Hysterical claims by COMELEC commissioner Sixto Brillantes that fears about the conduct of elections are baseless exploded in his face yesterday with the massive errors and defects encountered in the FTS,” Crisostomo said.
“Why did Brillantes keep denying these problems? Was he simply being lazy? In denial? Delusional? Or is it part President Aquino’s plan to use deliberately defective PCOS machines, and a deliberately faulty AES?” he asked.
Crisostomo said that no one but Aquino would benefit from what he dubbed the ‘AEF’ or ‘Automated Election Fraud’.
“We must remember that the last time the numbers ‘12’ and ‘0’ were mentioned in an elections, it was former Gloria Arroyo back in 2007 with her ‘election magic’ in the province of Maguindanao. The next time it was mentioned was several months ago, by Team PNOY manager Franklin Drilon. Is there a connection between the AEF and the 12-0 proclamation? We believe there is” he said.
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