TIM last minute withdrawal

in the corrupt system of election in the Philippines, ways are suggest to sought the cheating and manipulation of vote results in the election which is considered as the mirror of democracy in the Philippines. Cheating - the main concern of many has pulled masses attention as well as the government to find ways to make the election clean this 2010. And the answer - ELECTION AUTOMATION.

It was tested on August 11, 2008 at the ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) election has been automated. A great signed of acceptance that Automated Election could be the answer for this dilemma. According to COMELEC Chairman Jose Melo, he was very very satisfied with the results of the poll in ARMM where it is said to be the cheating capital of the Philippines.

The automated Election in ARMM was the result of the efforts of government to call newly-organized grouped of information technology professionals to use open standards and open-source technology for the automation of election in the Philippines.(Oliva, 2008)

The ARMM election on August 11, 2008 was under the contract of the two technology vendors in supply the optical-mark reader and direct recording electronic tecnologies.

According to Ito Gruet, an IT Professional and member of the advocacy for open systems in Election, the use of open standards or open source technology would promote transparency in the development of the automated elections system.

the Republic Act 9369, or the Automated Election system Law, it indicates that a technical evaluation committee must conduct a source code review of the software running on the machines that are deployed by the COMELEC.

The poll automation deal has been set, Total Information Management Corp.(TIM) and Smartmatic Consortium signed contract with the COMELEC. It has lessen the weariness of many and hope for the best that the 2010 election would be a clean election. The COMELEC-Smartmatic contract offers us the chance that there will be less risks of unhumane event that would happen in the span the time of waiting the results in which days would be lessen in counting ballots.

But the last minute withdrawal of the Filipino partner of the Smartmatic Consortium, the TIM has cause threats that might lead to the collapse of the project.

it is said that the reason of TIM was the irreconcilable difference of them with the foreign partner - Smartmatic.

"The withdrawal of TIM has heightened concerns that the 2010 election might not be held or that an election marred by fraud might lead to a future in election. providing an excuse for Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to declare a national emergency which would result in the extension of her term beyond 2010." stated in the Editorial Page written by Amando Doronila, 2009.

In layman's term, "Napulitika na naman!". The withdrawal of TIM gives many speculation to Filipino masses on the probable reasons behind it.

Now, let's take a look in a different point of view about the withdrawal of TIM in the contract. As an IT student, i have read some article about this issue. I have come up with the following understanding:

1. "Local Information technology provider (TIM) had backed out of their joint venture for election automation, fearing the deal would give its foreign partner uncontrollable power that would give its foreign partner uncontrollable power that could lead to potential abuse, according to an Industry source close to TIM" (Dumlao, 2009)

It is said that COMELEC would have paid the providers 7.19 billion for the lease of good and purchase of services.

That was a big amount the some has give the TIM different feeling.

2. In troubleshooting, Smartmatic will be responsible for preventing and troubleshooting of technical problems of the Election. Furthermore, according to Philippine Inquirer sources, Tim did not want to be part of a system that could lead to electronic cheating.

3. TIM were concern in "no say" software development, despite being the technical partner of Smartmatic, TIM would be pity, if electronic cheating to occur.

In the provision of the proposed contract with COMELEC and Smartmatic-TIM joint venture, it stated that "provider with the greater track record in automated election, shall in charge of the technical aspects of the counting and canvassing, software and hardware, including transmission configuration and system integration".

In other words, TIM responsibility was less than Smartmatic, going much interest to Smartmatic than TIM.

Smartmatic executives, on the other hand said they had technical expertise on conducting electronic elections and should play a bigger role.

4. Officials said the break up partnership was prompted by disagreements on who should control the purse in the P 7.2 billion deal and make decision.

5. Cheating could not be avoided. Machines are not perfect. COMELEC's precinct count optical scan configuration and Smartmatic' OMR (optimal mark reader) machines are not perfect. But, normally, OMR counting machines can be verya precise. But we don't know and we cant tell that it has been programmed for automated and undetected cheating.

6. According to the article written by the president of Systems Science Consult Inc., there are many ways to cheat in the election. It's like a hidden cheating. Where in it could happen in the program or the OMR have something to do with it. Some of his points stated that The Comelec propose of automatically transmit election results from OMR counting machines to the municipality or city server, though it is the fastest way cannot guarantee honest elections and does not provide transparency of the election counting press.

Anyone who is knowledgeable of the system could change the programs on the machines from a remote and undetected location.

----this has made me realized that systems could be corrupt or be invaded by anyone who is desperate to win unchallengeable fight. Though automation is possible in the Election let us still not be fully reliable to the accurateness of it. Let be watchful. Automation is a way to help transistion from the dirty manual system of election but the point is, though automated or not, technology are only tools for progress. It is us who makes the difference and how should we practice honesty and integrity. I am favor for automated election for i trust in the machine's capabilty but rest assure programmers must be very honest and impose security to the system to be not manipulated by any.


References:

"Open Source software use to sought in automated election system" - Erwin Oliva, Inquirer.net

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/

" Automated Election can be used to cheat" - Alcuaz, Manuel Jr. , Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2009

" Local IT firms Execs Fear" - Dumlao, Doris, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2009

"Poll Automation Deal: Comelec bidder - iron out differences" - Alave, Kristine L., Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2009

"Poll Nightmare" - Doronila, Amando, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2009