eCOMELEC

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) announced today that the synchronized mock polls held this morning in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was a “resounding success.”

In a press conference this afternoon at the poll body’s main office in Manila, COMELEC Chairman Jose A.R. Melo reported that the mock polls proceeded smoothly in the ARMM provinces. He said the exercise in Maguindanao had to be called off in deference to the scheduled visit of President Gloria Arroyo to the areas affected by heavy floods in the province.

The COMELEC chief related that the mock polls opened without incident in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Shariff Kabunsuan. The voting closed at around noon, and the mock election results were transmitted immediately to the municipal and provincial consolidation centers. In the province of Lanao del Sur, Commissioner Moslemen Macarambon personally supervised the mock polls.

“The mock polls held today in various ARMM provinces was a resounding success. We are optimistic that the scheduled automated elections next month would proceed as smoothly, seeing that the practice run today had practically ironed out all kinks in the system,” Melo said.

The mock election results showed that Hollywood actor Pierce Brosnan emerged as the winner for the ARMM Governor with 115 votes or 26.99% of the total votes in the region. Brosnan bested mock candidates Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Sharon Stone, Harrison Ford, Al Pacino and Catherine Zeta-Jones. On the other hand, Celine Dion won as Regional Vice Governor with 105 votes or 25.18% of all the votes cast.

Meanwhile, Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate’s Panel on Constitutional Amendments and Electoral Reforms and Rep. Teodoro Locsin, chairman of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reform; visited the COMELEC this afternoon to witness the final consolidation of mock election results in the ARMM.

“The results came in very fast,” Gordon told the COMELEC Chairman and Commissioners.

“Let pray for this (the success of the ARMM elections). Because not only do we have persons of integrity here in the COMELEC, we now have a modernized system of elections that will make sure our votes are counted. Wala nang panahon ngayon para mandaya” the Senator said.

For his part, Rep. Locsin said: “It’s good to see that the system works.” ###

The Commission on Elections said today that the employees who were caught bringing out Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drives from the joint suppliers’ warehouse in Manila have been terminated after a thorough investigation process.

“Based on the findings of the investigation, the employees inadvertently placed the defective USBs in their pockets and forgot to return them in their proper places before they left the warehouse for their afternoon break,” COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez said.

“It may be an honest mistake of the employees but we have to enforce the rules against any violations of our security protocols. After careful investigation, we have decided to terminate even the warehouse supervisor because we need to practice command responsibility,” Smartmatic- Sahi spokesman Vince Dizon said.

“As a policy, all our employees need to abide by our strict security regulations and protocols in all our warehouses both in Manila and Mindanao,” Dizon explained.

“We would like to assure the public that the Commission will never allow anybody or any group to tamper the integrity of the upcoming poll automation in the ARMM region,” Jimenez said, adding that the security regulations have been stepped up in the warehouse to ensure the integrity of the voting machines that will be deployed to Mindanao. ###

The Commission on Elections will be conducting mock elections in key locations throughout the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao tomorrow, 22 July 2008. This according to COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez who conducted a press briefing here in Zamboanga today.

“We are all very upbeat about the mock elections tomorrow,” Jimenez said, “it will not just be a great learning experience for us, it is also the beginning of the fulfillment of a long-cherished dream of automated elections.”

In Cotabato, Vince Dizon, spokesman for Smartmatic Sahi, also spoke with the media to announce the simultaneous conduct of tomorrow’s mock elections there.

“We’re very confident in the automated election system we’re going to use in August,” Dizon said, “and tomorrow’s exercise will reflect that confidence.”

Leo Querubin, Avante Technologies spokesman, for his part reassuref the public that “the process of perfecting the automated election system has been carried out with great care and professionalism by both technology providers and the COMELEC.”

The mock elections are an essential milestone in the development and use of an automated election system, under RA 9369. # # #