Technicality may still hamper ARMM poll automation

By Dona Pazzibugan - Philippine Daily Inquirer

The planned automation of the August 11 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) still faces a major glitch as Congress has yet to approve a special exemption that allowed the Commission on Elections to enter into negotiated contracts with voting machine suppliers.

A joint congressional oversight body has promised to exempt the Comelec from government procurement rules just so that the poll body could implement the automated elections law of 2007.

The Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Electoral System, however, has not yet obtained approval of such resolution from both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. reminded Senator Richard Gordon, who chairs the oversight committee, that suspending the law on public bidding needed congressional approval.

"These (bidding) requirements could not be suspended by a mere approval or recommendation of the oversight committee. There should be a law to authorize the suspension," said Pimentel.

Pimentel pointed out, however, that he had no objection to the committee's decision to waive the bidding rules in this case.

He urged Gordon and committee co-chair, Makati Representative Teodoro Locsin Jr. to immediately file the resolution so it could be approved by both chambers as soon as possible.

Gordon chairs the Senate committee on constitutional amendments while Locsin chairs the House committee on electoral suffrage and reforms.

The Comelec announced earlier this week that it had awarded contracts to two bidders to supply the voting machines.

Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies, Inc. will install a direct recording electronic (DRE) system in Maguindanao while Avanti International Technologies Inc. will provide an optical mark reader (OMR) technology for the other five ARMM provinces -- Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi Tawi.

The DRE system uses touch-screen or touch-pad technology and is fully automated, according to Smartmatic-Sahi. The OMR technology on the other hand requires voters to fill out a paper ballot which will be scanned by specially designed machines.

The Comelec has a P867.3 million budget for the automation of the ARMM polls.

Gordon welcomed the news of the award of the contracts, which he said "signals the first step towards truly modernizing our democracy."

"With computers in the precincts, our fellow Filipinos in the ARMM are assured that their votes will be counted and counted fast, possibly within the hour, and their right to choose their leaders protected," he said.

Under the current system of manual voting and counting, "it takes too long to get a result and time taken to count the votes encourages "dagdag-bawas" (vote padding and vote shaving) and other electoral fraud," Gordon added.

Pimentel shared Gordon's hope that poll automation would prevent electoral fraud in a region known for massive electoral cheating.

"Unless we use the automated election system in an actual election, we will not be able to find out its various features as well as its possible defects," he also said.

He said the success of poll automation in the ARMM would be crucial for the upcoming 2010 presidential election.