Comelec's recipe for disaster

A call for vigilance

(Following is the transcript of the segment "Analysis by Winnie Monsod," which aired on News on Q on June 29, 2009. Prof. Winnie Monsod is the resident analyst of News on Q, which airs weeknights at 9:30 p.m. on Q Channel 11.)

Now that the winning bidder in the election automation project has been announced, there is a tendency for the public to sit back, and maybe heave a sigh of relief that the Philippines has entered the modern era as far as elections are concerned.

Come election day, all we have to do is vote, and the dagdag-bawas will be a thing of the past.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of sitting back, the public has to be ever more vigilant, to make sure that we don't find ourselves facing total chaos on election day and - the worst scenario of all - a failure of elections.

What are the reasons for this call for vigilance? Only consider: if you Google the winning bidder, Smartmatic, you will find that whereas it is presented to us as a Netherlands-based company, in other words you get the impression it's doing business in the Netherlands and operates from there, the truth is that it merely was incorporated there, and most of its principals are Venezuelans.


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