Poll body to hire IT students in May polls

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will seek the services of Information Technology (IT) students for the May 2013 elections following the shortage of manpower from the Department of Education (DepEd).

Comelec-Davao Region lawyer Danilo A. Cullo said they will be sending letters to tertiary schools in the metropolis for its recruitment on technical support personnel.

Cullo said the recruitment protocol stemmed from the memorandum issued by the Manpower Pooling Group (MPG) of Comelec-Manila in February 4.

He said among the qualified technical support personnel are IT junior or senior students of the colleges in the city.

"We already sent request letters to schools that offer IT courses. We still don’t know how many because we still have to know if we need them per school or per cluster precinct," Cullo said.

Citing the memorandum of the Comelec-Manila, Cullo said all the election officers (EOs) in the region are instructed to conduct selection and screening in the recruitment of technical support personnel until February 15.

Adolfo Ibañez, head of MPG, set a protocol for the recruitment.

The memo stated that recruits must undergo screening process of a one-hour written examination with a passing rate of 80 percent; and one hour practical examination on personal computer (PC) peripheral, including setting up a PC, with a rating of seven to 10.

Recruits, who will pass the screening process, are required to fill out a personal data sheet and service contract.

"May bayad pud na sila. Probably same as the teachers (who will serve during elections)," Cullo said.

He said DepEd personnel will still operate the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, while the recruits will only assist the former and standby in case of any technical trouble.

Cullo said it was the Smartmatic which selected its personnel who assisted teachers last year.