As we speak, NAMFREL volunteers in far flung areas are still waiting for replacement vote counting machines or SD cards so that the vote of the people in those areas can be truthfully counted.
We have all been witnesses to the many problems that attended the conduct of the midterm elections on May 13, 2019. While the count of the VCMs that broke down or malfunctioned, corrupted SD cards and the problematic Voter Registration and Verification Machines in pilot areas continue to tick, we have yet to determine the full impact of those problems on the voters, especially in remote areas of the country. Did those problems result to disenfranchisement of voters? This, we have yet to determine.
What everyone saw are VCMs in voting precincts, VRVMs in selected voting precincts, and canvassing servers at the city or municipal canvassing centers. A limited number of citizens saw and witnessed the operations at the Pope Pius Center that hosted the Transparency Server. Hidden behind the cloak of secrecy are the COMELEC’s Central Server and its backup as well as what is referred to as the “transmission router” which in reality is a network of computers and devices through which all election results transmissions were routed.
The transparency server data outage on the night of Election Day was worrisome for stakeholders, especially among candidates, causing them to wonder the possibility of data manipulation. The data outage cast doubt on the integrity and credibility of election results.
Following this fiasco are issues raised – the secrecy of the location of COMELEC’s Central Server and, again, the “meet-me-room” operations.
It is now time for COMELEC to come forward and lay down the cards for full transparency:
We call on the COMELEC to fully explain the Java error which caused the delivery of election returns to various recipients to stall;
We reiterate our request for access to the logs of all machines used in the automated election system, without restrictions and consistent with Open Data Principles;
We call on COMELEC to reveal the location of its Central Server and its backup and who are managing their operations;
We call on COMELEC to fully disclose and explain the “transmission router” or the “meet-me-room” network set up, how it operates, and who are behind its operations;
Lift the veil of secrecy and let the people know.
