3 foreign IT firms eye poll contract

One local and three international information technology (IT) firms — including the giant US-based Hewlett Packard — have offered to help automate the elections in May 2007, a senior official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that aside from HP, Israel-based ELAD Resources and the Filipino-owned Mega Data Corp. were keen on taking part in poll computerization.

The three companies completed their respective presentations last Friday. They were among the six groups that had shown interest in the computerization of the May 2007 elections, according to the Comelec official.

HP, along with its Spanish partner SCYPL, wants to handle the technology for the overseas absentee voting through the Internet, while ELAD’s proposal covers registration, canvassing, down to counting and electronic transmission, the official said.

Mega Data, also known as "Botong Pinoy,’’ also offered to handle electronic voting, canvassing, counting, and even recount.

The presentations focused on the technical capabilities of the firms and the potential project cost was never mentioned at all, the Comelec official said.

More IT companies are expected to make presentations next week but James Jimenez, Comelec’s spokesman, said their identities would not be revealed in the meantime. "This is confidential," Jimenez said.

He stressed that Comelec’s entertaining of project proposals was "merely a preparation" for the possible enactment of a law on selective automation.

"These are all part of the preparations so that in case the bicam enacted into law the neutral technology we could immediately select the tailor-fit technology for us," he said.

Sen. Richard Gordon earlier proposed a partial automation of the polls, citing the time constraints for full-blown automation. He said partial automation should only cover the National Capital Region or Metro Manila, Cebu, Batanes and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Senate and the House of Representatives organize a bicameral conference committee to reconcile their differences over legislative measures. A piece of legislation approved by the bicameral committee is submitted to the President for signing and enactment.