Comelec to hold trade fair on automated poll system today

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will hold today the Automated Election System (AES) Technology Fair at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City to boost preparations for the 2016 polls.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said systems provider Smartmatic International Corp. will join the trade fair.

Smartmatic has provided the precinct count optical scan machines used by the poll body in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

Brillantes admitted the Comelec still owes Smartmatic P50 million for services rendered during the 2010 polls.

“We have paid them majority of the amount already. We just have about 10 percent retention fee since we are still asking them to clear up some matters,” he said.

The fair is expected to help the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC) in choosing the best voting technology for the 2016 elections, and then make a recommendation to the poll body.

The poll automation law mandates the CAC to choose the “the most appropriate, secure, applicable and cost-effective technology” in elections.

Aside from Smartmatic, seven to nine foreign and local providers are expected to join the fair where they will showcase their voting systems.

Brillantes said the commission en banc has given the CAC until August to submit its recommendations.

The CAC is chaired by Undersecretary Louis Napoleon Casambre, head of the Department of Science and Technology’s Information and Communications Technology Office.

Its members come from the Department of Education, University of the Philippines, Chief Information Officers Forum Foundation, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, Legal Network for Truthful Elections, Infocomm Technology Association of the Philippines and Philippine Computer Emergency Response Team.