Cabinet Secretary Silvestre “Bebot” Bello III Sunday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to be transparent on the possibility of whether the May automated elections would press on or not.

"The Comelec should be transparent to the people and say now whether, based on their calculations, the automated elections would push through in May,” said Bello who is also running for the Senate in the 2010 elections.

He said not holding the automated elections would push the country to more periods of civil unrest.

“We don’t want the legitimacy of the next leaders to be questioned, in the courts or in the streets,” Bello said.

And if the automated elections won’t push through, Bello said Comelec should take the flak for the failure to implement poll automation in this year’s national elections as mandated by Republic Act 9369 which stipulates the full automation of the 2010 elections. “They shouldn’t be remiss in their mandates,” he added.