Calls for deeper auto polls probe build up By Marie A. Surbano and Angie M. Rosales 06/14/2010

COMELEC, SMARTMATIC NOT OFF THE HOOK YET Calls for deeper auto polls probe build up By Marie A. Surbano and Angie M. Rosales 06/14/2010 Just when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and its supplier Smartmatic were about to breathe in relief after exhaustive probes into the conduct of the automated polls last May 10, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. sought the continued impounding of the 60 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines at the Senate while poll watchdog-Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) asked the poll body to make public several documents which it will use for its planned independent study of the recently concluded automated elections. In a statement, CenPEG said there is a need for a full disclosure in the documents related to the implementation of the first-ever nationwide automated polls before an unprejudiced assessment can be made. Pimentel also urged the Comelec to authorize the disclosure of the source codes to allow the scrutiny of neutral information technology experts from the Philippine Computer Society (PCS), as requested by Congress. Pimentel made the appeal in reaction to a statement of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that the voting machines that were placed under Senate custody should be transferred back to the Comelec. “An objective study can only be done if pertinent data and information, relevant to the study at hand, shall be accessible and available to researchers and scholars, so that a no-nonsense body of knowledge can be developed in the interest of public service and good governance,” CenPEG said. CenPEG said these documents inculde the SysTest full report; source code waltkthrough plan; source code of PCOS program; source code of the CCS programs; file formats of all data files used or produced by the PCOS program; file formats of all data files used or produced by the CCS program; public keys used by all the PCOS computers; public keys used by all the CCS computers; user manual of the PCOS program; user manual of the CCS program; and the Smartmatic-Comelec contract with the complete annexes..... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100614hed1.html

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