Comelec to receive bids for new AES today

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will receive bid proposals today for the lease of a new automated election system to be used in the 2016 polls after the Supreme Court deferred ruling on a petition seeking to stop the bidding for new precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

In a bid bulletin, the Comelec-Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) said the submission of the eligibility requirements and initial technical proposals of the bidders would cover additional optical mark reader (OMR) technology.

The acceptance of bid offers for the direct recording electronics (DRE) or touch screen system has been set on Dec. 6.

The OMR will augment the more than 80,000 PCOS machines purchased by the Comelec from Smartmatic in 2012.

The DRE will be pilot-tested by the poll body in selected areas during the May 2016 elections.

Bid proposals should be submitted by 9 a.m. today at the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila.

The Comelec is set to lease some 23,000 OMR machines to supplement the PCOS units, while it is looking at leasing 410 units of DRE.

Some P2.5 billion was earmarked for the OMR units while P32.5 million was allocated for the DRE machines.

Earlier, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. slammed critics of the AES, saying such groups are motivated by vested interests.

Belmonte said the groups should offer a better alternative to manual counting of votes. – Sheila Crisostomo, Paolo Romero