DICT to present proposal on alternative automated election system

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is set to present its proposal for an alternative automated election system on Friday.

DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr., who also serves as the chair of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Advisory Council, said the proposal will integrate an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software technology into the system.

Rio said the proposal seeks to make the elections “more credible and transparent.”

“We will continue to study this so that we can know what to improve and hopefully, be adopted in time for the 2022 elections,” Rio said in a statement.

The DICT made the proposal after President Rodrigo Duterte called on the Comelec to “dispose of” Smartmatic, the provider of the vote counting machines (VCMs) for the Philippines’ automated elections.

“I would like to advise Comelec now. I won’t delay this: Dispose of that Smartmatic and look for a new one that is free of fraud,” Duterte said during his meeting with the Filipino community in Japan.

READ: Duterte tells Comelec: Dispose of Smartmatic

Rio said the proposal will be submitted to Comelec for consideration. (Editor: Eden Estopace)