In a meeting I attended some two weeks ago, one of those present asked the group, “Which is better, do the right thing wrongly? Or, do the wrong thing rightly?” One guy very quickly replied, “Of course, do the right thing wrongly.” Everybody agreed, because even when one does the right thing wrongly, he would most likely do it right, sooner or later anyway. On the other hand, doing the wrong thing—rightly or wrongly—will forever be wrong.

I am reminded of this little anecdote because I thought it applies, in a very bad way, to a system that we have been fighting against, for some years now. I refer to the automated system that the Cmelec used in 2010 and 2013 – Smartmatic’s PCOS system.