The people of the Philippines will be heading to the polls in less than a year and the electoral commission for the country still has a great deal of preparation and planning ahead of it. Most notably, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is currently accepting and reviewing bids for the machines to be used in the vote counting process. Comelec for the Republic of the Philippines is still keeping its options open, choosing whether next year's presidential election will be fully automated, partially automated, or if it will use a more traditional manual method.
The Republic of the Philippines is hardly a
stranger to electronic voting technology, having already utilized the
technology in 2010 and 2013. Indeed, the country was
applauded for “putting technology to
new and better use.” Given the
tremendous success in both elections, it can be safely assumed that the country
will continue its development and adoption of e-voting technology for the 2016
general elections.
While a bid put forth by Smartmatic and
Total Information Management was initially
disqualified due to a failure to submit valid Articles of Incorporation,
that ban has since
been overturned and the bid to provide some 23,000 new vote-counting
machines can and will be suitably considered. As Comelec is still considering a
hybrid solution for the 2016 election, the requirement for the new machines is
still up to debate and may be changed. The machines in this case will use the
aforementioned OMR technology, the same as was used in the 2010 and 2013
elections.
The Philippines is a nation with a
democratic conviction and the upcoming general elections will once again
demonstrate why the country continues to be a shining example of how e-voting
can be best implemented in the Asia Pacific region.
