eCOMELEC

Automation of voting and counting and canvassing appear to no longer be doable in time for the 2007 National and Local Elections, and that only the pilot testing of electronic transmission of election results is still possible. This was the consensus that developed at today’s meeting of the members of the Advisory Council, attended by Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin S. Abalos and Department of Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro.

In an interview after the meeting, Abalos cited the opinion of experts that, with the bills amending Republic Act No. 8436 still pending before the Congress Bicameral Conference Committee, the time left for implementing any plan to fully automate the elections is no longer sufficient. Abalos likewise noted that all who responded to the COMELEC’s request for information expressed concern about the timeframe. “They told us that to make end to end automation a possibility, a contract should be awarded to the bidder, preferably by December,” Abalos said.

Abalos pointed out, however, that a partial automation of the elections might still be possible. “If we only have to automate transmission of results in certain pilot areas without automating voting and counting, we can do that,” he said. “The technology is easily available and can be made ready in time for the 2007 polls.”

The meeting was called for the purpose of reporting to the members of the Advisory Council the outcome of the Request for Information (RFI), sent out by the COMELEC last October 25, 2006. The report, delivered by Engr. Peter Banzon of the DOST, revealed that a total of thirteen election solutions suppliers submitted responses to the RFI. These were:

• Avante International;
• Bel India;
• Crimson Logic;
• Digital Data;
• EECSI;
• Elad Telecom Philippines;
• ES&S;
• Everyone Counts;
• Halal;
• HP/Scytl;
• MegaData Philippines;
• Smartmatic; and
• Unilect

A brief description of the submissions of each is attached. >>>