Comelec confident on new voting machines

Jan. 22, 2025
Voter’s Education and Automated Counting Machine (ACM) Roadshow conducted by COMELEC Region 11 at Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School, Davao City on December 2024.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is finishing its information dissemination in Davao Region on how to use its new Automated Counting Machines (ACM), as they expressed confidence of its use for the 2025 midterm polls on May 11.

Comelec Region XI Assistant Regional Director Atty. Gay Enumerables said in a press conference that they have reached almost all barangays in the region and conducted demonstration especially for first-time voters, on the use of ACMs

The Comelec started this information campaign last December and is expected to end by January 30, 2025.

“Our election officers have visited almost all barangays, even the remote and farthest areas, to conduct ACM demonstrations. We are now at the tail end of our voter education efforts,” Enumerables told the media.

For the 2025 national and local elections, the region will be using 4,189 new ACMs, which they said designed for faster and more efficient counting.

The country has used automated machines since the 2010 election, but this 2025, Comelec is introducing the new counting machine supplied by South Korea’s Miru Systems Company.

The previous automated machine provider, the London-based Smartmatic, was disqualified from bidding by the Comelec in 2023, after charges of bribery involving the company and Comelec’s former chairperson Juan Andres Bautista was raised.

Comelec is paying Miru Systems 17.9 billion pesos to supply 110,000 ACMs.

During the demonstration of the ACM to Davao media, Enumerables said that the features of this new machine includes rechargeable batteries that can last for three days once fully charged.  This will prevent interruptions during voting and transmission.

Automated election is criticized by poll watch groups due to lack of transparency in vote counting and controversies in past elections, such as glitches and delays in transmission. 

One of these groups is Kontra Daya, which proposes a hybrid form of election that would mean manual vote counting in precincts while transmission of votes will be done electronically.  Comelec rejected this proposal as it claims there should be a law passed to implement this scheme.

Enumerables assured that transparency and effective transmission will be delivered with the Miru ACM.  He said there will be a hub of technicians and accredited representatives from Comelec on standby in the region.

He added that Comelec will use satellite technology from Starlink for transmission of votes.

Enumerables also assured that there will be no power interruptions on election day after their talk with power companies throughout the region.   

“We have identified areas that frequently experience power outages, such as Davao del Norte. During our meetings, we included the provider, DANECO, and requested that there be no power outages on election day,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Police Regional Office 11 said that the entire Davao region is under COMELEC’s green status, meaning the region has no election hotspot areas.   But the police will still enforce the election gun ban and other regulations as there are areas identified of having intense political rivalries. (davaotoday.com)

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