Boy, this poll automation project is really making a lot of people nervous. Just yesterday the Center for People Empowerment in Governance or CenPEG filed a petition before the Supreme Court to compel Comelec to reveal the source codes for the counting and canvassing software to be used in the 2010 elections. CenPeg has been bugging the commission for the source codes because it wants to make sure the system is not vulnerable to easy manipulation.

Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM have been fairly consistent with their stand on this particular issue. Basically they've been saying that there is a prescribed time for the review of the source code but that the time has not yet come. Taking its cue from Republic Act 9369 or simply the Amended Poll Automation Law, the commission maintains that the source code may only be released to political parties among others including concerned citizens groups of course. The thing is the political parties have not assembled as yet. They will still have to hold their conventions and file their candidacies before November 30.

Also, section 11 of RA 9369 states that the Technical Evaluation Committee...

shall certify, through an established international certification entity to be chosen by the Commission from the recommendations of the Advisory Council, not later than three months before the date of the electoral exercises , categorically stating that the AES, including its hardware and software components, is operating properly, securely, and accurately, in accordance with the provisions of this Act...

I may be wrong but last time I checked there are no established international certification entities locally.

Personally, I appreciate CenPEG's insistence on getting the source code. At least they're doing due diligence unlike some people who oppose poll automation while not being really informed about it. I'm just not sure if the group merely wants to make sure the system is in order or if  it is ultimately aiming to get poll automation scrapped. In any case the Comelec has also been consistent in assuring the public that the integrity of the poll automation software will be guaranteed before and during the election.

The code will be reviewed by COMELEC as well as by political parties and accredited organizations. After it is reviewed it will be digitally signed and hash codes will be provided to all participants. At the moment the code is inserted in each machine, both digital certificates and hash codes will be verified, which will guarantee with absolutely certainty that the code actually used is the same as the code reviewed. This also means that no malicious code can ever gain entry into the voting machine’s software.

CenPEG will just have to wait. Comelec will release the source code just not yet.