THE multisectoral advisory council of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to meet next week to iron out the specifications for the technology that will be used to automate the 2010 presidential elections, in a move to finally modernize the elections.

                James Jimenez, spokesman for the Comelec, said the advisory council, composed of  representatives from the Departments of Education, of Science and Technology, and of Finance, and from civil-society groups, will convene in a couple of days to finalize the terms of reference (TOR) for the poll modernization.

                Members of civil-society groups who sit at the advisory council include Henrietta de Villa, national chairman of the Roman Catholic Church-based Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), and a representative from the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms (Iper).

                The TOR will determine the specifications of the machines that will be used in the automated elections.

                “They are now finalizing the TOR,” Jimenez said. The TOR would also allow potential bidders to present their technology before the poll body.

                Jimenez said unlike in previous Comelec modernization projects that did not push through, and where the type of technology in computerizing voting was specifically identified, the new project is open to different systems.

                “We are now less restrictive on technology unlike in 2004 when we were [limited] to OMR [optical mark recognition]. It’s now practically open,” he noted.

                Jimenez added that this is the result of the enactment of Republic Act 9369, or the law on poll modernization which allows flexibility in automation technology. 

                He said that aside from the Comelec’s openness to the type of technology for poll modernization, “the process we are following now is the same process we did in 2004.”

                The Comelec failed to use the almost 2,000 automated counting machines it bought from consortium Mega Pacific eSolutions which cost the government P1.3 billion when the Supreme Court declared the project void for bidding irregularities.

                The project was the second botched move of the Comelec to automate the polls. In the late 1990s, more than 60 units of automated counting machines were found defective even before they were used for pilot testing in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao  elections.

                Jimenez said the only problem the Comelec is facing right now is the budget to modernize the elections. He added that the commission is requesting a budget of P2.6 billion to carry out the project which will no longer be divided in three phases unlike the previous automation.

                In 2004, the Comelec split its modernization project into registration, automation, and transmission awarding each phase to different companies. Only the computerized registration pushed through which was also marred by complaints from voters who did not receive their ID cards in time for the presidential elections.

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THE multisectoral advisory council of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to meet next week to iron out the specifications for the technology that will be used to automate the 2010 presidential elections, in a move to finally modernize the elections.

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