Comelec to sign deal on voting machines

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to sign a contract today with a bidder that will supply the voting machines to be used in Maguindanao during the Aug. 11 polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said the Smartmatic Sahi joint venture finally met the poll body’s requirements for direct recording electronics (DRE), the touch-screen machines wherein the names of the candidates are uploaded.

The poll body, however, has not decided which between Active Business Solution (ABS) and Avente International will bag the contract to supply the optical mark reader (OMR) machines.

The OMR technology involves the printing of the candidates’ names with corresponding ovals that will be shaded by voters if they want to vote for them. It will be used in the other ARMM provinces.

Melo said the Comelec was still studying if ABS or Avante passed the demonstration tests that they conducted at the Senate last month.

The Comelec earlier wanted to cancel the automation of the ARMM elections but some senators threatened to realign the budget for automation to address the food crisis.

The senators promised to issue a resolution granting the Comelec “legal cover” so it could relax the bidding rules and push through with the computerization of the ARMM polls. But no resolution has so far been passed.

Despite this, Melo vowed to continue with the automation “with or without” the resolution to prove to all that the Comelec is “sincere” in its effort to automate elections.

“Definitely, even if there were no resolution, we’ll push through with the automation of the ARMM elections. We’ll automate at our own risk,” he said.