Banner year for Comelec

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) had a banner year in 2008 as it successfully automated elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a project that the agency had failed to implement in the 2004 synchronized local and national polls.

While the Aug. 11 election was only a local exercise, the successful automation was seen as a step toward finally implementing computerized presidential polls in 2010.

“I think we made an impact when we succeeded in automating the ARMM elections. It proved that we can do it,” said Comelec Chairman Jose Melo.

The Comelec had tried to computerize the 2004 elections using the voting machines supplied by Mega-Pacific e-Solutions Inc. However, the project did not push through as the Supreme Court nullified the Comelec’s contract with Mega-Pacific due to bidding anomalies.

For the ARMM polls, the Comelec tested two technologies – the direct recording electronics (DRE) in Maguindanao and the optical mark reader (OMR) in Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Shariff Kabunsuan.

The machines were supplied by Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies Inc. and Avanti International, respectively.

With the results of the elections known within 48 hours without major criticisms from poll watchdogs like the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), the computerized ARMM voting was considered a success.

The multisectoral Advisory Council on Poll Automation and the Comelec are now studying which of the two technologies is best for the national elections in 2010.

The Council had already proposed to the Comelec that paper-based machines or OMRs are best for the coming polls due to budgetary constraints. While DRE provides full automation from voting to counting and canvassing, OMR prints the list of candidates on paper and voters will have to shade with pencil the names of their chosen candidates and this will be counted and canvassed by machines.

The Comelec is hopeful that Congress will release its proposed P15-billion budget for the coming polls so it could start preparations by January next year.

As part of the preparation for the 2010 polls, the Comelec also resumed last Dec. 2 the continuing registration of voters in areas outside of the ARMM using the biometrics system. Through the data-capturing machine (DCM), it hopes to flush out from the voters’ list some 25 million double and multiple registrants.

DCMs capture voters’ data like signature, photograph and thumb mark. Using this data, the machines detect if one has already registered, solving the Comelec’s problem of double or multiple registration. The ongoing voters’ registration will end on Dec. 15, 2009.

In 2008, the Comelec lost four of its commissioners – Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason retired in February, Romeo Brawner passed away in May and Moslemen Macarambon failed to get his reappointment papers from the Palace. Meanwhile, Comelec’s Legal Department director Wynne Asdala was gunned down near the Comelec office in Intramuros, Manila last March.

The agency, however, gained three new commissioners – retired Court of Appeals justice Lucenito Tagle, retired Malabon Regional Trial Court judge Leonardo Leonida and Armando Velasco, Comelec’s regional director for the Cordillera.

It still lacks one more commissioner though, but this will not affect the agency’s decision-making process because the seven-man Comelec agency can now constitute a quorum with six top officials.