Manila: The inadvertent inclusion of a photo of a bikini-clad actress in a slide show presentation has forced a senior Philippine official to resign.

Lawyer James Jimenez of the Commission on Elections was making a presentation on the Automated Election System (AES), which will be used in the May 13, 2019, midterm elections and was browsing through the slides when the screen suddenly featured the photo of the skimpily attired actress.

Jimenez, humiliated by the incident, quit from his position as focal person of the Local Source Code Review (LSCR) Committee.

The presentation was held on Saturday at the Catholic-run Dela Salle University in Manila.

Jimenez, who holds the concurrent position of Commission on Elections spokesman, said he was also caught unawares by the incident.

“Last Saturday, we kicked off the source code review and, unfortunately, there was a small technical issue that resulted in the flashing of image that was inappropriate to the event,” the Philippine News Agency quoted the official as saying.

“Again, I regret that, but I have to take responsibility. It was our committee that arranged that event and that sort of thing should have been better handled. As a consequence I have this morning tendered my resignation as focal person for the local source code review again because of that unfortunate event,” Jimenez further said.

Whodunnit

It was unclear if Jimenez or any of his staff were responsible for the presence of the image on the slide or if there was an effort from outside parties to corrupt the presentation and put the Commission on Elections in a bad light.

While the apparent glitch caused Jimenez to give up his role as focal person of the LSCR panel, he remains the spokesman of the Comelec.

In May 2010, the Philippines undertook its first nationwide automated vote. In previous years, elections in the country had been slow and cumbersome with results often questioned by the candidates.

Previously, it could take days for the vote tally. However, since the automated elections, the winners are known just hours after the polls close.