AS early as May 7, 2009, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) had already made a study/paper about the title of this article. The 19-page paper started with “Contrary to a recent newspaper full-page ad with an Obama-ish heading ‘Yes, we can!’ and posturing that ‘automated elections’ will ‘modernize democracy,’ the full automation of the May 10, 2010 national and local polls will most likely lead to wholesale electronic cheating; thus, disenfranchising millions of voters. Equally worse is that it will make poll watching extremely difficult; thus, rendering it moot and academic. The technology can be used by the powers-that-be for the electoral defeat of any legitimate opposition candidate or party. Serious political scenarios will ensue from what may turn out to be a failed electoral exercise.

“As the key instrument in the country’s election modernization, the Commission on Elections (Comelec), among other entities, should be held to account for a possible failure of elections or, at the very least, widespread election protests. There are strong indications that the Comelec is ill-equipped and ill-prepared to administer the May 10, 2010 elections, and its preparations for the installation of election technology appear to disregard some key provisions of Republic Act (RA) 69 and recommendations of its own advisory council.