Malacanang remained hopeful Sunday that the barangay elections set for October would shift to full automation, but left them to the discretion of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the next Congress to decide on the matter.

Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo said the Palace would not meddle with the affairs of the poll body and the Legislature which are mandated to handle such electoral concerns.

"The Palace will not directly get involved in this because this is in the hands of Congress and Comelec so let's leave it to them,"  Saludo said, in Filipino over government radio.

But Saludo expressed hope that the barangay polls would also be computerized, following the success of the last May 10 automated elections.

The computerized polls were declared generally peaceful and orderly, despite earlier concerns of technical and procedural lapses and poll-related violence. Results of the  automated polls were known after a few days.

"Because of the smooth conduct of the automated elections, we hope the same system will be used for the barangay elections this October. So far, we don’t see any reason this should not push through," Saludo said.

The latest remarks from Saludo came after Comelec spokesman James Jimenez claimed the barangay elections may not be  automated. Jimenez had earlier said the barangay elections do not have consolidation of certificates of canvass, usually done by the  poll machines.

The poll body has yet to formally announce whether the barangay elections would be manual or automated.