Comelec to announce winning bidder of P525-M voting machine contract for ARMM polls

MANILA, Philippines – Results of the Aug. 11 elections in Maguindanao will be known within an hour after voting has ended, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday after it inked a P525-million contract with a European company that will supply voting machines for the province.

The Comelec has also contracted Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies Inc. to undertake the transmission, canvassing, consolidation and system integration of the election results for the entire six-province Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“It’s going to be full automation. Everything is on the go,” said Comelec chairman Jose Melo in a press briefing after the contract signing.

But Melo said the Comelec might be able to decide only on Monday which between Active Business Solution (ABS) and Avanti International would supply the optical mark reader (OMR) machines to be used for the rest of ARMM.

The poll chief, however, refused to comment on the results of the Comelec’s efforts to cleanse the ARMM’s voters list of 18,000 double and multiple registrants.

“That is another matter. If we think of so many things, we’ll be choked,” he said.

OMR involves the printing of the candidates’ names on the ballots with corresponding ovals that will be shaded by voters if they want to vote for them. With this technology, the results of elections will be known within 24 hours.

Comelec Commissioner Moslemen Macarambon claimed that with automation, they expect electoral fraud in ARMM to be lessened because the system limits “human intervention.”

“It (cheating) is really a problem as far as the ARMM is concerned because of so many human intervention. By this automation, we’ll be able to minimize cheating,” he said.

The Smartmatic will supply some 3,050 DREW machines worth P135 million. The machines will contain the names and photographs of the candidates.

To vote, the voters will have to press the boxes corresponding to their candidates on a voting pad. After voting, the machines will produce the printed vote that will be kept in ballot boxes for possible recount and other use in the future.

Smartmatic spokesman Cesar Flores said that DREW  technology  produces accurate and faster electoral results. The company is based in the Netherlands.

“The results are handled without human intervention. The results are completely accurate and they are completely auditable. They have paper trail in ballot boxes,” he said.

Flores assured the system uses the latest data encryption technology to provide the highest level of security for the votes. The machines can also run seamlessly on battery power using any commercially available car battery for as long as 12 hours and can provide instructions in any language.

After the voting process, all the votes are immediately transmitted to tabulation computers at the municipal, provincial, regional and national centers for consolidation and canvassing.

Just like in the traditional election system, copies of election returns, statement of votes and certificates of canvass are given to the Board of Canvassers, political parties and accredited election watchdogs.

The Comelec is set to start an education campaign in ARMM to teach the voters and the members of Board of Election Inspectors and Board of Canvassers how to use the new technology.