28 July 2010

Smartmatic sued in the Philippines

As expected, it hasn't taken long since elections for outraged Filipinos to sue Smartmatic for negligence, incompetence, corruption, and unethical behaviour, in violation to various legislations. René Azurin argues:
Charged by the PCS for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (R.A. 3019), the 1987 Constitution (Article XI, Section 1), the Government Procurement and Reform Law (R.A. 9184), the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards of Public Officials, and the Automated Election System Law (R.A. 9369) were Jose Melo, Gregorio Larrazabal, Rene Sarmiento, Nicodemo Ferrer, Armando Velasco, Elias Yusoph, Lucenito Tagle, Jose Tolentino, Ester Roxas and James Jimenez of Comelec; Anthony Roxas-Chua III, Timoteo Diaz De Rivera, and Denis Villorente of Comelec’s Technical Evaluation Committee; Cesar Flores and Heider Garcia of Smartmatic; and Jose Mari Antu_ez and Nilo Cruz of TIM. The respondents, according to the complaint, were guilty of "gross negligence and incompetence" and they "committed grave abuse of discretion resulting in the commission of ‘corrupt practices’ and ‘unethical conduct’."
More here. Thus another election in which Smartmatic is contracted under suspicious and apparently illegal circumstances, is marred with unreliable results, lack of transparency, corruption... So what else is new?

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