Game over for Smartmatic. Comelec should be made to account

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) and its allies did not fail to say recently that we have had a very successful 2016 national and local elections (NLEs). But we never heard them saying that the automated election system (AES) implemented in the past three NLEs had been compliant with all the provisions of the AES law or RA 9369. The truth is, Comelec has never complied with the said law. So what was the implication for not complying with the AES law? Simple—the AES implemented was vulnerable to cheating!

It’s very clear in the AES Law that the automated polls should be certified by the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) three months before the elections. When did the TEC release their certification? That was done two days after AES Watch had a news briefing on April 28 pronouncing that Comelec was ill-prepared, not compliant with the AES law, and that the AES was not TEC-certified yet! Subsequently, with additional pressure from former Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal on April 29, Comelec admitted for not having the TEC certification. OMG!