Comelec inking poll automation deal with Smartmatic Friday

Contract with OMR supplier signed Monday

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will sign Friday afternoon the contract for the automated election system to be used in parts of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) during regional elections there in August.

Comelec chair Jose Melo confirmed to INQUIRER.net that the poll body will sign the contract with Smartmatic Sahi for its direct recording electronic (DRE) technology.

The Comelec Bids and Awards Committee witnessed a demonstration of the technology by several suppliers late Tuesday.

The Comelec also expects to sign a contract with another supplier, this time of the optical-mark reader (OMR) technology, on Monday, Melo added.

ABS International and Avante are both bidding to supply the OMR technology.

Melo said the poll body has to rush the implementation of the poll automation program since it only has three months before the ARMM elections.

The election automation in the ARMM requires the use of DRE technology in Maguindanao and OMR technology in five other provinces, namely Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Shariff Kabunsuan.

The use of the two technologies is based on the recommendations of an advisory council.

DRE uses touch-screen or touch-pad technology for voting, while OMR requires voters to complete a paper ballot which is then fed into a specially designed machine, similar to a scanner.

The advisory council is the body of expert advisers created under Republic Act 9369 and given the task of recommending to the Comelec the technology to use for the election automation.

The Department of Budget and Management has allocated about P867 million for the automation of the ARMM elections.

The advisory council had recommended a six-month schedule for the deployment of the automated election system. This will include training voters and Comelec personnel and for "mock elections."

Melo said the Comelec still has time to deploy the automated election system, as mandated by law.

"We think we can still do it. We need this since we can't do automated elections in 2010 without this. We have no choice," he added.