Comelec releases review of May polls this week

MANILA, Philippines - Whether the country’s first automated elections were a success or not will be finally known this week.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said that the initial assessment report on the May 10 automated elections will be out on Tuesday.

Sarmiento said the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is scheduled to submit an initial assessment report to the commission during the meeting.

“IFES will be submitting its report, initially, on September 14. They will be coming to the Comelec for their initial post-election assessment,” he said.

Sarmiento said IFES technology expert Michael Yard would present the report, which will focus on the voters’ registration and post-election assessment.

Earlier, the Comelec announced that the poll body selected IFES to conduct a “full-scale” assessment of the election so as to enable the poll body to identify the mistakes done in the last elections.

Sarmiento said the commission would also use the evaluation to improve the automated elections process when the technology is adopted in the succeeding polls.

He, however, expressed confidence that IFES will be coming out with a general positive report on the last elections.

“Although of course there were some glitches, I am still confident that the report of IFES would be positive,” Sarmiento said.