MANILA—A hybrid system featuring manual and automated polls would be more transparent, an official representing an election watchdog said on Wednesday.

"The voters have a right to witness the counting of their votes,"
Namfrel national chairperson Augusto Lagman said in an interview on ANC's "Future Perfect."

Lagman also cast doubts over the accuracy of the automated system used in this month's elections.

He said that even though a receipt is printed showing how an individual voted, it was still possible that the machine was programmed to record something else even while it printed a voter's list of chosen candidates.

"It's all programmable," Lagman said.

He also said that a hybrid system will not run counter to the Automated Election Law.

Many countries have actually reverted to manual election, he said, because automated polls lack transparency.

"As a matter of fact, in Germany, it's not only because it wasn't transparent, it was also unconstitutional," said Lagman.