Pull-out of CF cards for PCOS Machines: To reconfigure or to rig? - Maza

Nacionalista Party and Makabayan coalition senatorial candidate Rep. Liza Maza yesterday expressed strong doubts over the COMELEC pullout of compact flash cards and suspended delivery of PCOS machines in Metro Manila a week into the May 10 automated elections.

"COMELEC officials say it is to reconfigure the CF cards but this could also be used to rig the reading of ballots and the counting and tallying of votes. PCOS machines are dependent on the code programmed into the CF cards. This could embed cheating right into the machine," Rep. Maza warned.

Monday's dryrun of the PCOS machines in Makati, Muntinlupa, Las Pinas and Sto.Tomas, Batangas showed a mismatch of tally between the computer read and manual count.

"The COMELEC should make SMARTMATIC-TIM accountable for this glaring error. This just might be a glitch in their view but this could also ditch the people's vote," Rep. Maza said.

"Their explanation seems more like an alibi than an reasonable excuse. A supposed misalignment of reading of the back of the ballot occured. But isn't the ballot printing and the CF card programming aligned? If it can read the front of the ballot, why can't it read the back? COMELEC blames the horizontal and vertical orientation of the ballot for the program but who did the programming? Who approved the system? COMELEC has no one to blame but itself," Rep. Maza added.

Makabayan, along with senatorial candidates Liza Maza and Satur Ocampo, are in the midst of preparations to safeguard the polls with a week to go before elections. ###