MANILA -- Dutch company Smartmatic Corporation and its local partner expect to sign the poll automation deal with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier than the July 10 deadline.

Cesar Flores, Smartmatic international sales director, said the reconciliation last Friday between them and their Filipino partner, Total Information Management (TIM) Corporation, resulted in the completion of the incorporation papers that they need to submit to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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The papers are important to enable the official signing of the contract for the P11.3 billion poll automation project, Flores said.

"We will submit the [incorporation] papers by Monday and within a day or two it would be released... so somewhere between Wednesday or Thursday, we will sign the contract [with the Comelec]," Flores said.

He said all the needed documents have been completed since Friday and there is no more reason that their incorporation as a joint venture would be delayed.

"TIM has already signed all necessary documents for the incorporation of our joint venture," he added.

Election Chairman Jose Melo, meanwhile, called on the groups or individuals who are preventing the realization of poll automation to stop and allow its progress.

"Why do they keep on insisting a manual election? The manual system is already discredited. Whenever there are controversies, there is going to be instability. We don't like that," Melo said.

"People are calling for automation already. There is a big, big majority of Filipinos who have been clamoring for automated elections. This is why we want to automate," he asserted.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelie Fajardo, for her part, said Malacañang expressed elation over the smooth resolution of the problems in the automation of the 2010 polls. "President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the entire nation, is waiting for poll automation to happen."

She also expressed hopes that the scheduled signing of the contract between TIM and Smartmatic on the implementation of the poll automation will "push through without snags."

Last Friday, the commission announced the end of the rift between Smartmatic and TIM, which Melo said puts the automation system back on track.

Over the weekend, Smartmatic officials assured the country that it will be institutionalizing a "dream" scenario in next year's polls by declaring it will have a swift and secure system with minimum human intervention.

But Melo admitted that while the two companies closed their case, the threats of suit from some camps might still cause trouble in the future preparations of the poll body to computerize the May 10, 2010 elections.

"There should be no apprehensions anymore regarding automation but there are still some people [who] don't approve of automation," Melo lamented. "We consider them to be the minority here in our country."

The election chief was referring to the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), which will question the signing of the poll automation deal before the Supreme Court.

Harry Roque, lawyer for CCM, said they will charge the Comelec, Smartmatic, and TIM if they will push through with the signing of the poll automation contract. (MSN/Sunnex)