THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday announced that it has accredited eight groups, mostly political parties, to participate in the source-code review of the automated election system (AES) that will be used in the conduct of the May 2016 elections.
The eight are Liberal Party, United Nationalist Alliance, Nationalist People’s Coalition, Unang Sigaw (Nueva Ecija local party), Bagong Bayan Party, and Lakas–CMD, as well as Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and Center for People Empowerment in Governance.
Elections Commissioner Luie F. Guia said that, while they are already satisfied with the participation of eight groups, the poll body is still hoping that more groups will signify their intention to participate.
“In principle, we want to be as inclusive as we possibly can. We were hoping that there will be more,” Guia said.
The local source-code review will start on October 12 at the De La Salle University in Manila with the first phase involving the baseline source codes.
The second phase will involve review of the customized and configured source code of the AES.
The review will involve the source codes of the vote counting machines; consolidated canvassing system; and election management system.
Section 12 of the Republic Act 9369, or the Election Automation law mandates that the commission shall “promptly make the source code available and open to any interested party or group, which may conduct their own review.”
The source code is the human readable instructions that dictate what the AES will do.
This developed as the Comelec said it is ready to operate for 12 hours daily for the last 15 days of the registration period as part of the “Huling Hirit” campaign of the poll body.
“We want to maintain a 12-hour shift. We are looking at 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day from October 17 to 31…puwede naman 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Basta gusto namin ay 12 hours,” Bautista said.
Currently, the voter registration is being conducted nationwide from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Saturday.
Aside from extending their office hours, the poll chief said they have also directed their local election officers to identify two to three venues in every city or province that are capable of hosting satellite registration centers for those with high number of applicants.
“These are malls, schools, auditoriums, gymnasiums, etc., that will host the registration for two weeks. We are looking to close election offices that are small, cramped, and are inconvenient,” he said.
On the other hand, local election offices that are already capable of handling the number of voters will remain at the offices of election officers.