Kabataan Party-list Representative Mong Palatino today said that the modernization of elections alone through poll automation may not solve the longstanding problem of election fraud.

“Using technology as a quick fix for the array of problems that have hounded our polls will not automatically solve electoral fraud and other problems. There are more fundamental issues to address and yet the Commission on Elections seems to be caught up in something that it might not just be fully prepared for ,” Palatino said.

Citing experiences from other countries, Palatino said that developed countries in Europe and America are even reverting back to manual elections or partial automation because of various problems encountered with digital voting.

“Automated elections in other countries are not free from technological problems. In Germany, for instance, the Supreme Court has ruled that electronic voting was unconstitutional because machines that were used are even less secure than mobile phones. In the Netherlands, meanwhile, electronic voting machines were banned after they were found to be easily hacked. Even in the US, technological glitches have occurred, affecting the counting of ballots in some states.” Palatino said.

“If the Comelec believes that technology will free the elections from cheating, then it should look at the experiences of these highly-developed countries. Hindi pa tayo kasing hi-tech ng mga bansang ito kaya’t hindi malayong mas malalaking problema pa ang ating ma-encounter. Hindi porke’t nagkapirmahan na ay ayos na ang lahat,” Palatino said.

He urged the Comelec to make public all terms involving the Smartmatic-TIM deal and to practice full transparency with regard to the processes, system and implementing rules and guidelines of automation. ###