Comelec has yet to hold bidding for automated election system

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has yet to hold the required bidding for the purchase of new Automated Election System (AES) to be used in the 2016 national elections.

The Comelec earlier announced its plan to conduct the bidding for the purchase of new AES by mid-October.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez yesterday explained that the poll body has yet to start the bidding because “we needed to consult the Comelec Advisory Council and had a workshop to finalize the terms of reference.”

Jimenez also said the preparations for the 2016 elections are still on track even if the poll body is still unable to conduct the planned bidding.

“Even if we start late October or early November, that is still two months for the first phases of the bidding,” he said.

The Comelec hopes to release the bidding documents for the AES on Oct. 27.

The poll body previously approved a resolution allowing the use of the existing precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines of Smartmatic and a secondary optical mark reader (OMR) technology in the 2016 presidential elections.

The agency needs 40,000 additional OMR units to supplement the Comelec-owned 80,000 PCOS machines.

The Comelec also planned to pilot test the Direct Recording Electronic machines and the Internet voting system. About 200 DRE machines will be pilot tested in highly urbanized area during the 2016 elections.