MANILA, Philippines -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will convene the technical advisory council on poll automation on Monday, a Comelec spokesperson told INQUIRER.net.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed the automation bill into law Tuesday.
"We have called for a meeting of the advisory council on Monday," said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez in a telephone interview.
The technical advisory council has previously recommended the postponement of the automated elections in May 2007 due to lack of time and resources.
Despite this recommendation, Arroyo has signed into law a bill that would automate the election process beginning with the May 2007 polls. Republic Act 9369 seeks to amend the current automation law, Republic Act 8436, by authorizing the use of an automated election system (AES) in the voting, counting, consolidation, canvassing, and transmission of results and other electoral processes.
Comelec officials were unavailable for comment as of this posting.
Asked about the implications of Republic Act 9369, Jimenez said that the poll body has "very little time" to automate elections. It also has no budget to spend for the projected 2.6-billion-peso modernization project.
Since the poll body's budget is re-enacted, he insisted that there is no "modernization fund" to speak of.
He said that technology suppliers are also requiring for a certain lead time to work on automating the May 2007 elections.
"Now that we have the law, we still have to deal with problems of not having enough time, budget, and lead time for suppliers to work on automating elections," he added.
Nonetheless, the Comelec spokesperson said the poll body might push for the electronic transmission of election results come May 2007.
Under the law, an advisory council will be created within 10 days after its effectivity. The council will recommend the "most appropriate, secure, applicable, and cost-effective technology" to be applied in the automated election system, participate as non-voting members in the bids and awards committee, and provide assistance in the review of the systems planning, development, testing operationalization, and evaluation stages.
Heading the council will be the chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), with members including the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), the Department of Education, a member of the academe, three members representing ICT professional organizations, and two members of non-government organizations.
A technical Evaluation Committee composed of CICT, DoST, and Comelec will also be created to oversee the implementation of the AES.
The CICT has been meeting with Comelec and other agencies this month to thresh out details on how to automate the elections. The CICT then sent a letter to Malacanang, recommending the postponement of plans to go ahead with the automated election system this year due to lack of time for preparation.
CICT chairman Ramon Sales was unavailable for comment as of this writing.
