The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to minimize irregularities in succeeding elections.

CHR Chairwoman Leila M. de Lima issued the plea even as she admitted the automated elections have potentially made it more difficult for some forms of cheating to take place.

Nonetheless, De Lima stressed that "electoral irregularities, anomalies and fraud remained widespread. Reports of massive vote-buying in many places have surfaced. People have also reportedly been paid to vote more than once or not to vote at all. Reports have also come in of coercion, intimidation and harassment carried out by armed individuals or groups. Voters in certain places have alleged that they were forcibly inked."

Worse, visiting election observers "have also stated that they were subjected to instances of intimidation, by both military forces and suspected private armed groups. Partisan armed groups reportedly terrorized certain communities. And all these were clearly aimed at denying persons their right to vote, and at undermining the possibility of free, fair and genuine elections," De Lima said.

She asked Comelec Chairman Jose A. R. Melo to tackle the criticisms from information technology watchdogs and experts regarding the integrity of the process.

"To name a few: The disabling of the PCOS machines’ ultraviolet scanners, and in their stead, 76,000 portable UV-detection lamps were purchased and distributed but were hardly used or used selectively on election day; the Comelec’s express instructions to the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) not to digitally sign the electronically transmitted election returns; the adoption of a no ballot replacement rule, and the non-adoption of a voter verification mechanism whereby the voter is able to find out whether the machine has registered his choice. All these and more, which are deviations from the statutorily-prescribed safeguards, are a cause for serious concern," she said.

"In addition, the review carried out by SysTest Labs Inc., an American company which certifies voting software, of the Smartmatic source code used for the automated elections is not encouraging. Among other things, SysTest appears to have stated that the Ballot Production tool was not subjected to the full certification process, and therefore should not be used in the May elections. SysTest also appears to have stated that the modem firmware, which is required for transmissions, was not subjected to the full certification process, and it advised Comelec to request the source code from Smartmatic, and thoroughly review it before the elections," De Lima noted.