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MAGUINDANAO is scheduled to be the first province to
have automated election after the Commission on
Elections (Comelec) signs a P279-million contract with a
private firm that previously lost in a bidding for
automating the poll.
The
Comelec announced Thursday it will sign the contract
with Smartmatic Sahi Joint Ventures (Smartmatic) for the
automation of Maguindanao today at the Comelec’s
headquarters in Intramuros,
Manila.
Smartmatic proposed to use direct recording electronic (DRE)
technology in its bid, selected by the Comelec as one of
two systems it will try in the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao polls. The use of two systems was
recommended by its technical advisory committee to
better assess which is more secure—the other system is
the optical mark reader (OMR).
The
experimental use of the systems is in preparation for
the full automation of the 2010 elections as mandated by
Congress.
The DRE
is a touch-screen system where voters just key in the
candidates’ names and their vote is automatically
counted. The OMR, on the other hand, requires a ballot
where voters shade ovals in questionnaires with
corresponding names of candidates, which is then scanned
using a machine.
Often a
problem area during elections, it was in Maguindanao
where the administration ticket took a clean sweep of
the senatorial elections last year that was widely
slammed as flawed by the opposition.
As for
Lanao del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan and Shariff
Kabunsuan—the other parts of ARMM—two companies, Active
Business Solution Inc. (ABS) and Avante International (Avante),
are vying for the P125-million project. Both firms were
also previous losers in the Comelec bidding for the ARMM
poll automation.
Earlier,
the Comelec said ABS may be in charge of the polls in
Shariff Kabunsuan and Basilan while Avante may handle
Lanao del Sur.
Sulu and
Tawi-Tawi will maintain the manual election system as
agreed upon by the Comelec and the joint congressional
oversight committee after it decided to suspend the
Government Procurement Act so the poll body can enter
into contract without bidding.
Vote-rich ARMM has an estimated 1.7 million voters and
is often the area where poll cheating occurs. |
