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.

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.