BAGUIO CITY – Critics of the implementation of the May 2010 synchronized and automated elections are coming out with issues on problems being encountered by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) relative to the automated elections for their own personal and political agenda, Senator Richard Gordon said here Wednesday afternoon.

As author of the automation law, Gordon said there is no stopping the conduct of an automated elections in 2010 since all systems have been defined in the approved law but the minor problems being encountered by Comelec in implementing provisions of the law are being addressed by the poll body and the winning supplier of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

He explained there is still time before the May 2010 elections, thus critics who are criticizing the poll body and the supplier for issues surrounding the automated elections are just trying to create divineness among the people and try to discredit the supposed benefits of an efficient election process.

“Those who are continuously criticizing the way the Comelec and the winning bidder is handling the automated elections are the ones who are against the implementation of an automated elections since they could no longer cheat,” Gordon stressed.

Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM, the winning bidder, assured everything is within the prescribed schedules for the automated elections, thus there is no need for politicians and the people to panic about the situation.

According to Gordon, Comelec officials stand to face impeachment and other charges once the automated elections fail.

He disclosed the substantial bond posted by the winning bidder for the PCOS machines will be confiscated in favor of the government for proper disposal if they fail to abide by the contract it signed for the automated polls.

Gordon claimed he refuses to comment on the allegations being hurled by some quarters against the automated elections since he believes the poll body and the supplier are doing their best to implement a 100 percent automated election, saying unnecessary remarks from politicians and self-proclaimed graftbusters are untimely.

By Monday, Smartmatic is expected to deliver the first batch of PCOS machines while the remaining undelivered machines will be arriving in January next year.

The senator explained the implementation of the automated elections next year will give a chance to poor candidates who have the heart to serve to win in the elections considering that it will eventually remove the human interventions in the counting of the ballots.