High Court gives go-signal for automated polls

(Updated 2 - 5:29 PM) The Supreme Court has given the Commission on Elections the go signal to conduct the first nationwide automated elections, after it junked three petitions which sought to either to postpone the May 10 polls or revert to manual voting. Court Administrator and spokesman Midas Marquez said the high tribunal sees "no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Comelec." Among the rejected petitions included those filed by lawyer Harry Roque, Partido ng Masang Pilipino standard bearer Joseph Estrada, and the Philippine Computer Society. Marquez added that it is the Comelec, and not the court, that has the jurisdiction over the complaints. He added that the arguments raised by the petitioners were "speculative" as they were merely raising their fears in connection with poll automation. "Puro fears, hindi pwede ganon ang arguments," he said. (These were all fears. Their contentions cannot be argued this way.) In a separate phone interview, Roque said he found the decision "unfortunate." "The SC has missed the perfect opportunity to provide stability in the political situation," Roque said, adding "in case automations fail, the institutions would have to speak for themselves." - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV