Pimentel bats for gradual automation of Philippines election
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MANILA — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today branded as a canard the
allegation that he had opposed the computerization of
the country’s elections.
Referring to a political advertisement which appeared
in some newspapers blaming him and other legislators
for the poll automation fiasco, Pimentel said he has
always advocated the computerization of elections.
“It’s not true that I opposed the computerization of
the electoral process. As a matter of fact, I authored
the bill calling for poll computerization,” he said.
“How can I object to computerization when I am
convinced that this is the best way to speed up the
counting of election results and to eliminate
cheating?”
Pimentel said although he supported the enactment of
the new law prescribing an Automated Electoral System,
he did not think it could be implemented during the
May 14, 2007 national and local elections due to acute
time constraints.
He said he believed in the views of information
technology and election experts that to insist on the
automation of this year’s mid-term national and local
elections would only bring disaster.
The senator from Mindanao also said that automation of
the electoral system should be carried out on a
gradual basis.
Pimentel said he has been proposing that automation of
polls should be implemented first on a pilot basis in
a few selected provinces, cities and municipalities in
Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
He cited the experience of Belgium, a country of about
10 million people, which is only 50 percent
computerized some 10 years after it started automating
the elections.
Pimentel said that since there is already a P2.6
billion earmarked for the automation of elections
under the 2007 national budget, Congress and Comelec
should look into the possibility of partial
computerization of the barangay elections scheduled in
October this year.
If the partial computerization of the barangay
elections is successful, Pimentel said the Comelec can
proceed with the computerization of the national and
local elections in 2010.
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