Mano a Mano

It seems that the "marriage" of Smartmatics and Total Information Management will be short-lived, if not, it would not even materialized.

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo privately met with the two companies yesterday to give the Friday deadline to settle and to sign the contract for the automation of 2010 Elections.

Money, money, money

After the meeting, the Chairman told reporters that the primary reason for the TIM back-out was money but quickly reiterated that it was not lack financial fund. It was the other way around. Aparently, TIM wanted to dictate how the commanding investment of Smartmatics is going to be used.

Slim Chances

Broadcaster Mike Enriquez, in his morning radio show quoted Comelec Chair Melo saying "...very, very, very slim chance of an automated election."

The No-El
Presidentiables however are weary that the inability of the Comission on Election to fully modernized the voting and canvassing process may lead to a "No Election" situation come 2010.

The Option

If a full automation won't be available, then the Comelec may have to opt for a partial automation as suggested by former Chair Christian Monsod.

It would not hurt to try this option as it may lessen the days of canvassing to half if allocated to major provinces or cities.

***

Automated or manual, if the Comelec fails to guard the votes there would still be a chance that candidates will to find to cheat their way to winning.

"it should not be assumed that just because there is automation, there could be no cheating." - Winnie Monsod

Source: GMANews.TV