Comelec to pick poll machine

Precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to decide Tuesday on the automated election system (AES) it will use for the presidential polls in 2016.

The decision of the commission en banc will be based on the recommendation of the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC), which it submitted last week, and which is to reuse the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines as the primary system, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said in a recent interview.

“Probably we will have a decision in our next en banc meeting… hopefully we will have a consensus because the CAC is just recommendatory,” Brillantes said.

The CAC has recommended the Comelec again tap the PCOS machines as the main system and use either the optical mark reader, the touch-screen technology called Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) or Internet voting for Filipinos abroad as the secondary system.

Brillantes said the Comelec wanted to decide on the AES this early to allow for a bidding by next month.

“Our target is to finish by the end of the year so that we could already purchase what we need for the 2016 balloting,” he said.

Brillantes said the en banc wanted to get ahead in its preparations for the 2016 elections because three commissioners are set to retire early next year. They are Brillantes and Commissioners Elias Yusoph and Lucenito Tagle who are leaving office on Feb. 2, 2015.

Earlier, the Comelec said it was open to using a new AES for the 2016 elections, which would mean ditching the PCOS machines which were used in 2010 and 2013.

One of the options being considered by the Comelec was the use of the DRE system but some groups were not in favor of this.