Former president Joseph Estrada, through his lawyers, on Friday asked the Supreme Court to stop the country's first automated elections slated on Monday and order the Commission on Elections to hold manual elections 15 days from May 10. In a nine-page petition for preliminary injunction and/or temporary restraining order, Estrada said the use of the Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM's counting machines on May 10 would deprive the Filipinos of honest and orderly elections. Estrada asked the Supreme Court to order the Comelec to stop all its preparations for the automated elections on Monday and instead start working for the holding of manual elections. He also asked for a postponement of the elections for 15 days to give the Comelec time to prepare for manual polling. Estrada adverted to the widespread failure of the precinct count optical scan machines during mock elections and during the testing and sealing phase early this week as the reason for his petition. During the tests, votes for some candidates weren't credited to their tally by the PCOS machines. “These failed tests, serious and flagrant as they are, created a reasonable ground to believe that the automated elections scheduled for May 10, 2010 are headed towards a chaotic, if not, total failure of elections,” read Estrada's petition filed by lawyers Roberto Cabredo and Maria Leah Lara. “Various sectors have expressed fears that this chaos, confusion, and turmoil may become so unmanageable that it could place the country in a state of emergency,” the petition added. Estrada's petition also adverted to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report on the mock elections in six towns in Oriental Mindoro where votes for presidential candidates Manny Villar and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III were counted for Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. of the administration party. The petition quoted Nacionalista Party senatorial bet and spokesperson Gilbert Remulla as saying: “There were five (5) votes for Villar, five (5) votes for Aquino, but when it came out (in the machine), there were no votes for Villar, no votes for Noynoy and 10 votes for Teodoro.” “Petitioner hereby reiterates that he is filing this Petition for Prohibition and Injunction not only because he is a candidate but more so because of the danger that a failed automated elections may lead to a ‘failure of elections' which in turn, might lead to more serious complications,” Estrada said. “We dare not venture to guess on what would be the resultant effect to the Filipino people and to the nation, another ‘people power' would bring,” he added.
