The prospect of reverting to manual elections will be a huge disappointment for President Arroyo who has envisioned the country’s first automated elections before she steps down in office this year, Malacañang said Sunday.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said, however, that the Palace would still rally behind the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ensure peaceful, fair, and credible elections regardless if the votes are counted manually or electronically.

For now, Olivar said they have not lost hope over the automated elections and remained confident the poll body could iron out the technical glitches in the poll machines as seen in recent field tests.

“The President will be disappointed if that (manual elections) happens because automated elections is part of her 10 legacy agenda since her term started in 2001. She has done her best, the executive branch has done its part to ensure automated polls,” Olivar said in his weekly media briefing aired live on government radio.

“Whether it is automated or not, it is up to the Comelec. We just have to support the poll body to ensure we will have credible, orderly, and peaceful elections,” he added.

Olivar said they will respect the wisdom of the Comelec if it pursues manual polls in case the automated process fails, adding the electorate should also support the poll body. “We are hopeful for a automated polls but the decision lies in the Comelec,” he added.

The Comelec earlier said manual elections could be the last resort in case technical snags hit the poll machines on election day. A set of contingency measures is also in place before the poll body could consider manual counting of votes.

Amid reports field tests of poll machines continued to show poor results, Olivar said Smartmatic-TIM should be sued in court if found violating provisions of its poll automation contract with Comelec. “If they have contractual liabilities, the poll body should run after them,’ he added. So far, Olivar said the Comelec has been transparent in the poll automation process, citing the field tests that were open to public scrutiny.