Glenn Chong is not the issue, it is the Smartmatic-PCOS electoral system

FROM A DISTANCE By Carmen N. Pedrosa (The Philippine Star) | Updated October 29, 2017 - 12:00am

Like many others I think Glenn Chong is a good person. But that is only half of the story. The other half is about the automated electoral system. Chong had firsthand experience of the cheating that took place in Biliran and we should give him credit for the information he gave us.

The trouble is with the automated election system itself. No amount of goodness will correct the Smartmatic PCOS electoral system that has been forced on us for the sake of speed and modernity.

I concur with experts from advanced countries that an automated electoral system contradicts the basic principle of elections – voters must know how they voted and how it was counted without being technically knowledgeable.

I’m a voter, not a techie. “Electronic voting is unfit for political elections in a democracy and no technology can change this. There are recent claims that this “barrier” has been overcome with the use of strong cryptographic techniques, homomorphic protocols, etc to achieve elections of provable (not probable!) validity…”

In democracy governmental power is transferred by counting secret votes during elections. To accept such transfer people and parties must be 100 percent sure that electoral results are fair and square: doubts about the legitimacy of the winner can damage the political life of the country and even bring riots and revolutions.

The only way to guarantee fairness of elections is that electoral procedures guarantee that each vote really represents its (unknown) elector’s will.

Fairness of elections can be guaranteed only by electoral procedure open to the active check of the people by democratic control.

That’s why ballot paper elections are more suitable for democracy. The people can tally up real votes (ballot papers democratic control are hand written by electors and readable by anyone). When ballot papers are publicly counted in the same place as they voted and when scrutinizers are randomly selected citizens (as done in Italy, for example), then who actually counts votes and declares the result of each ballot station is the public, and the central electoral service has the mere role of tallying such results.

Electronic vote, carried out via computer and digital links represents a poisoned chalice for technologically advanced countries; it is no exaggeration to say that it threatens to eliminate democracy as we know it today.

Happily, Filipinos are not entirely powerless to confront this monster that now threatens our country.

There is a solution.

We can change our Constitution asap to restructure our body politic from presidential to parliamentary. Then we will no longer need automation. We will have smaller constituencies and fewer party candidates. It means campaign money to allow meritorious candidates from our marginalized sectors.

The current political structure limits the choice of voters to those who control the system, rich oligarchs and family dynasties and now drug lords. The high cost of campaigning breeds corruption and has shut out the marginalized sectors from being fully represented in proportion to their weight.

Fake election in the guise of automated election through Smartmatic PCOS is the name of the game. It is the same as dictatorship. It transfers the only expression of the people’s sovereignty to machines.

The intent is to lull more intelligent and knowledgeable people into believing the swan song that if it is automated therefore it must be accurate.

Indeed as I have repeatedly mentioned in this column, the federal republic of Germany as well as other developed countries did not bother to track down examples of how an automated electoral system can go wrong. It simply decided that it was wrong.

If the voters do not understand the process of automated elections then it is unconstitutional and ought not to be used.

That is why  many developed nations such as Germany, Netherlands and Japan have started to abandon the use of electronic voting machines and reverted back to manual electoral system as it has only cast more doubts instead of guaranteeing the sanctity of the votes.

In 2009, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled electronic voting unconstitutional on the ground that “a citizen must be able to examine all the essential steps and the result of the election without any specialist knowledge.” It is not only unconstitutional it is also immoral.

MISCELLANY. Ambassador Zhao Jianhua’s statement when he handed heavy equipment for the rehabilitation and rebuilding of Marawi:

“I’m glad China is the first country to donate and deliver rehabilitation equipment to the Philippines. There is a Chinese saying, that is, when you want to do something good, then do it timely. The equipment arrived just at the time when the reconstruction of Marawi City is about to begin. The donation is timely and they are going to be used immediately.

At the very beginning of your campaign against IS-inspired terrorists, the Chinese government has made it very clear that China stands together with the Philippines. It is not only because combating terrorism is the shared responsibility of all nations, but also, and more importantly, that we are close neighbors, partners and friends.

China means what it says. We have translated our policy statement into real actions. China has delivered two batches of rifles and ammunition to the AFP, and the third batch will be delivered in the first half of 2018. The total value is P800 million. Cash donation for the purpose of humanitarian assistance has amounted to P95 million. We are glad that the rifles we donated have been proved to be effective.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Philippine government, AFP in particular, on the victory of your anti-terror campaign in Marawi.

To demonstrate you can defeat terrorists, you can also win the heart and soul of the local Muslim community. This is going to be a new campaign, a campaign that will and should turn Marawi into a grand example for a beautiful, prosperous, sustainable and inspiring city. A new Marawi City of this kind rises from ashes and ruins will surely have great and positive impact on the future of Mindanao.

I am fully confident that under the wise leadership of President Duterte, the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Marawi City will be a complete success.

In this important reconstruction process, you will have a friend and partner. And this friend and partner is China.”

http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/10/29/1753573/glenn-chong-not-issue-it-smartmatic-pcos-electoral-system