eCOMELEC

The Commission on Elections this afternoon met with the foreign community of diplomats and donors to discuss with them various issues regarding the 11 August 2008 automated elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Representatives from the embassies of the United States of America; Australia; Singapore; Canada; United Kingdom, Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Japan and Indonesia, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), USAID and the Asia Foundation attended the briefing which was headed by COMELEC Chairman Jose A.R. Melo and Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer.

COMELEC Executive Director and Project Manager for the ARMM Automation Project Atty. Jose M. Tolentino Jr., in his presentation, emphasized that the upcoming automated polls “lays the necessary groundwork for the full automation of the 2010 National and Local Elections.”

“Automating the 2008 ARMM elections serves the dual purpose of ensuring clean, honest and orderly polls in that region and providing invaluable knowledge and experience that will ensure success of the 2010 elections,” Tolentino said.

He also noted that automation minimizes human intervention and discretion in the polls, thus eliminating errors and fraud.

COMELEC Spokesman and Assistant General Manager for Education and Information James Jimenez, for his part, updated the attendees on the poll body’s voters’ education efforts.

He said the poll body has been training COMELEC trainors on the handling and operation of the machines, application of the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) and Optical Mark Reader (OMR) technologies, system for canvassing and consolidation and other technical support requirements.

“For the general public, we’ll be fielding teams of educators starting July 1 and they will be going on a per municipality basis, in partnership with civil society organizations,” he said. ###