Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Comelec sets dry run on Armm automated election By Bong P. Garcia
THE Commission on Election (Comelec) will conduct a mock election in preparation for the conduct of the first automated election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).
Armm assistant election supervisor Vidzfar Juli said the dry run will be conducted towards the end of this month and aims to orient the voters on poll automation.
The Comelec will be using two types of machines: the direct recording electronic (DRE) and the optical mark reader (OMR) for the August 11 automated Armm election.
The DRE will be utilized in the province of Maguindanao while the OMR in other Armm provinces of Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
The DRE system uses touch-screen or touch-pad technology while the OMR method requires voters to fill out a paper ballot to be scanned by the machine for authentication.
Juli said these machines will arrive on July 20 at the Armm election office. These will be shipped to the autonomous region for the dry run.
He said they are coordinating with the police and military authorities in the Armm areas to help them secure the machines.
The 1.61 million registered voters in Armm are set to flock on 10,805 voting precincts in 113 towns and two cities or 2,470 barangays across the region to exercise their right of suffrage.
They are to elect new set of officials for the regional government, vice-governor and members of the 24-seat unicameral Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA).
The new set of elected officials will serve for a period of three years or until 2011.
