No blaming Smartmatic? FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 06/03/2010

No blaming Smartmatic?

FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 06/03/2010 A congressional hearing on allegations of automated poll fraud yesterday appeared to have been aimed at clearing Smartmatic, the automation partner of the Commission on Elections, with the chairman saying that the focus of the hearing then would be on the Comelec. The IT experts invited as resource persons, did say that it would be very difficult for outsiders to engage in electronic fraud, a conclusion to which the committee chairman, Teddy Locsin, agreed. It was more or less established that poll fraud could have occurred through an inside job, meaning that the automated poll results could have been rigged by insiders who knew just how the system worked, and how to beat it. But having established that, why then is Smartmatic being let off the hook? Logically, if an inside job is involved, then neither Smartmatic, nor Comelec, nor the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), should be cleared as yet, because when we talk of insiders who know how the system works, we have to talk about the Smartmatic technicians, the Comelec officials and personnel involved in the poll, as well as the officials and officers of the DoST, all of whom can be categorized as insiders. Smartmatic cannot be let off as yet, since the technicians were recruited by Smartmatic and were, even in the case of the machines, responsible and accountable for them, and, according to the so-called protocol, they have, or should have, custody of the machines. This was the explanation of both Smartmatic and the Comelec in the matter of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, amounting to 60, that were found in the home of a Smartmatic technician. What happens then when the congressional committee clears Smartmatic? The hired Smartmatic technicians get the blame and responsibility while the Smartmatic officials go scot-free? It is, however evident, that this automated fraud, could not have been done without the complicity of Smartmatic (at least on the level of its technicians, in which case, Smartmatic officials must bear the responsibility), the Comelec, its officials and personnel which would include the usual leaders and members of the poll cheating syndicate. It must be stressed, however, that a lot of suspicious moves were made — coming from Comelec..... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100603com2.html

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