JOINING a protest action in Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City this morning, workers led by labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno condemned the conduct of yesterday’s elections, saying the poll was marred with numerous disruptions and massive cheating.
The labor center cited election watchdog Kontra Daya’s mid-day statement last Monday, which stated that most of the reports it received concerned malfunctioning PCOS machines and other related matters.
It also cited problems with the conduct of the automated elections, namely, the lack of a mechanism for votes-vs.-computer count verification, the lack of a source code review, and the failure of PCOS machines to pass pre-election day tests.
It also cited Smartmatic’s possible tampering of the source code which was exposed last night amidst complaints that the initial count announced by watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas was bloated by millions.
“Chaos and fraud are the words that come to mind when we think of what happened yesterday. The chaos was pretty obvious but the fraud was also palpable,” said Roger Soluta, KMU secretary-general.
“We saw nothing that will ease our fears about massive cheating. What we saw, Smartmatic’s tampering with the source code, further confirmed our long-held fears,” he added.
“The automated elections sorely lacked transparency. Its results are highly questionable and are not credible for a growing section of our population,” he said.
KMU said Smartmatic and Dominion, which are the private contractors for the automated elections, the Commission on Elections and Pres.Noynoy Aquino should be held responsible for the fraudulent and chaotic conduct of this year’s elections.
“Aquino and Comelec should be held responsible for putting the country’s elections under private and foreign control. Together with Smartmatic and Dominion, they should be taken to task for holding a chaotic and fraudulent election,” Soluta said.
“It is clear that Aquino wants to strengthen his control over Congress and Senate. He wants to aggressively push for policies being demanded by foreign and local elites. He is in control of the elections and the main beneficiary of electoral fraud,” he added.