Comelec and Smartmatic treat 2010 elections as a joke

UNSEALED PASSWORD COULD WREAK HAVOC
IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASSING:
Comelec and Smartmatic treat 2010 elections as a joke

Bayan Muna Partylist representatives Teddy Casiño and Neri Colmenares were shocked at the cavalier fashion with which Comelec and Smartmatic treated the installation of the Consolidation Server for the Presidential Canvassing in the House of Representatives. “Comelec and Smartmatic did not send a representative in the installation, giving the House Secretary General the thankless job of explaining on their behalf. Their absence is a major insult to the House. They think our questions do not matter” said Bayan Muna representative Teddy Casiño. “Worse, the very important security tokens and their passwords were placed in an unsealed ordinary white envelope normally used in soliciting donations in barangay beauty contests. Magulo ang pag turn over ng Comelec at Smartmatic sa House. Can you imagine, they were using the guidelines for provincial canvassing as they were installing the CCS for the presidential canvassing. Parang joke lang sa Comelec ito”, added Rep. Casiño.

House Secretary General Marilyn Yap explained that those results that were not electronically transmitted will be entered in the CCS manually by entering the physically transmitted memory or CF cards. When asked if this will expose the CCS to fraudulent manipulation, she explained that only those who know the password can open the CCS to enter the physically transmitted results. “This exposes the presidential canvassing to fraud. Anyone who could have accessed the security tokens in the unsealed envelop and read the passwords written in a piece of paper, could now enter fake results in the CCS” said Bayan Muna Representative Neri Javier Colmenares. “Any losing presidential candidate can now question these results creating havoc in the presidential canvassing. The fact that the envelopes were open is a major fiasco for the presidential canvassing.”

Members of the House were also informed that results of the Overseas Absentee Voting will not be electronically transmitted but will be transmitted physically through its memory card. “Waiting for the results from countries abroad will surely cause delay in the canvassing. It is possible that we will be canvassing the results for more than 48 hours” said Rep. Colmenares. “Moreover, it is difficult for the watchers of poor party list candidates like Bayan Muna who cannot afford watchers to guard the memory cards all the way to the Philippines."

The installation was a failure according to Rep. Casiño. “Marami pang ibang palpak sa installation. The card or flash reader was not tested if it can read information,or if it will accept CF cards physically transmitted. There was even no testing of electronic transmission. Bayan Muna will submit a protest with the Comelec on these dangerous developments,” declared Rep. Casiño.