Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Maguindanao is 1st province to undergo electronic poll (7:40 p.m.)
MANILA -- The registered voters in the province of Maguindanao might soon be experiencing an automated process of elections in August.
This as one out of the two firms has qualified in the public bidding conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to automate the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).
According to Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, Smartmatic Sahi Joint Venture, which was bidding for the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) technology, qualified in the eligibility requirements set in the request for proposal (RFP).
The DRE will allow voters in the province of Maguindanao to vote through a touch-screen or touch pad while the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) requires voters from the rest of the region, to fill up paper ballots, which is then counted with a specially designed machines.
Jimenez refused to reveal the offer made by the group, a joint undertaking between the South American firm Smartmatic and locally based Sahi until the project is awarded to the winning bidder. (FP/MSN/Sunnex)
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