PCOS use urged for ARMM polls

MANILA, Philippines –  The multisectoral Commission on Elections Advisory Council (CAC) has recommended to the Comelec the use of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines in the Aug. 8 regional elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

But CAC member and Consortium on Electoral Reforms (CER) executive director Ramon Casiple said that if Congress approves a pending bill that seeks the postponement of the ARMM elections, the Comelec would have to study other technologies that might be used in the regional polls.

“The council has recommended the automation of the ARMM elections, whether it will be postponed or not. If the election will push through in August, the Comelec should now be preparing so we recommended the use of the machines that are already available here,” Casiple said.

The Comelec, according to Casiple, would be pressed for time if it would look for other technologies for the ARMM elections in August.

But in case the bill is approved and the ARMM polls are synchronized with the 2013 elections, he said the Comelec would have to evaluate other technologies.

“If it will be done this year, the more practical thing to do is to use the PCOS machines,” he added.

The CAC is composed of the CER, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, Commission on Information and Communications Technology, Department of Education, Department of Science and Technology, and University of the Philippines. 

The CAC was created under Republic 9369 or the Poll Automation Law to advise the Comelec on election computerization, along with the Joint Oversight Congressional Committee on Poll Automation.

At present, the oversight committee has not convened, leaving the Comelec in limbo as to which technology will be used in the ARMM elections.

The Comelec leased some 82,200 PCOS machines for the May 2010 local and national polls. The machines are now kept at the warehouse of service provider Smartmatic International Corp.

The poll body will be using only around 5,000 PCOS machines for the ARMM elections.