A workers’ electoral watchdog urged on Monday to scrap its plan to purchase the counting machines of foreign firm Smartmatic used during the 2010 elections, saying such plan “will embed a flawed and questionable technology into the country’s future elections.”
Workers’ Electoral Watch (WE Watch) raised the alarm as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Sixto Brillantes said last week that the government may buy Smartmatic’s Precint Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.
With the Supreme Court deciding to push for the Automated Election on May 10, 2010, it is all systems go for the Workers Electoral Watch (WE Watch). After weeks of intense skill-shares sessions with various unions and workers organizations across the Philippine islands, We Watch now has over 400 poll watchers and around 500 volunteer reporters spread among the cities of Metro Manila, Metro Davao, Metro Cebu, Metro Baguio, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon, Subic, Bacolod City, and Iloilo City.
April 17,2010- With election fever heating up alongside rising summer temperatures, more and more members of the labor sector are expressing concern over the conduct and outcome of the local and national polls. The use of an automated system in casting and counting our votes has not only put labor groups and organizations ill at ease, it has also lead them to unite towards guarding the upcoming elections.
Workers’ Electoral Watch: National Labour Consultation
Welcome Message by EU Ambassador Alistair MacDonald,
Manila, 22 February 2010
Fr. Dizon, Mr. Natividad, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning. I was glad to join you this morning, and am very pleased to have the opportunity to address you on the occasion of today’s National Labour Consultation. And I’m even more pleased that the EU was able to support this project through the EIDHR – the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights.
LAUNCHING STATEMENT
February 22, 2010
by Joselito M. Natividad, Lead Convenor WE-Watch
The Philippine government under President Arroyo is now engaged in an ambitious political exercise. It is automating the election system in a country that has uneven access to automation, and under time constraints that compel abridgement of requisites for its successful implementation.
The day started out early for Max's Restaurant in Intramuros as national labor leaders, non-government organizations, church-based groups, and the media flocked to the venue for the launching of the Workers' Electoral Watch or WE-Watch last February 22.
