Cebu Daily News / Visayas

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/visayas/view_article.php?article_id=213488

Pullout gets mixed reactions Cebu Daily News Posted date: July 02, 2009 Bacolod City—Most of the seven congressmen and the governor of Negros Occidental still prefer manual counting in the 2010 elections and are happy that the automation of elections might not push. Gov. Isidro Zayco said he preferred manual counting if there was not enough time to train personnel to implement automated counting. “We better go back to manual counting to avoid conflicts during the May 2010 polls,” Zayco said. Rep. Alfredo Marañon III of the 2nd District said that going back to manual counting was welcome news. “I would prefer manual counting over automated,” Marañon said. Rep. Julio Ledesma IV of the 1st district noted that the holding of automated polls at this time was just doing the right thing at the wrong time since most of those involved in the electoral process are not ready for automation. Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) also favored manual count over automation. “I am for the manual process because teachers have consciences and integrity (and) retirement benefits to protect. Machines don't have these,” Lacson said. He also expressed concern that automated polls would bring confusion and there would be no proclamations of winners due to difficulties in the counting process. Lacson, however, believed that the poll automation would still push through despite reports that it could be sidelined by the infighting in Smartmatic International Corp.-TIM, the company that won the Commission on Elections bidding for the project to automate the counting of votes in 2010, because the law mandated it. Total Information Management Corp. (TIM), the local partner in the consortium that won the, had pulled out Monday of its contract with Smartmatic International allegedly due to "disagreements over control." But Rep. Ignacio Arroyo Jr. (Neg. Occ., 5th District) and Bacolod City Rep. Monico Puentevella wanted automated polls to push through. Arroyo said he was disappointed that the Filipino partner of Smartmatic backed out of the poll automation deal. “We were on our way to having a more honest and credible election. We now have to take a step backwards again,” he said. /inquirer