A sample of Direct Recording Electronic or DRE voting machine (UNTV News)
MANILA, Philippines — “Scrap na yung DRE muna for now,” COMELEC Spokesperson James Jimenez said.
(For now the plan of using DRE machines is being scrapped.)
After its procurement was temporarily put on halt last March, this Tuesday, the Commission on Election (COMELEC) has finally decided not to push thru with the pilot testing of the Direct Recording Electronic or DRE voting machines this 2016 election.
The poll body eyed the use of the touchscreen voting machines in the municipality of Pateros based on the recommendation of the COMELEC Advisory Council to explore on other election technologies so COMELEC will not be dependent only on the optical mark reader or OMR machines like the PCOS machines.
COMELEC originally targeted to lease 410 DRE units with an approved budget of 31.2 million pesos.
But after going over the plan, COMELEC came into a conclusion that even if they will be able to save money by using a paperless touchscreen technology, government would still spend much on getting more machines to avoid long queue.
And because DRE will be new to the country’s electorate, COMELEC expects integration issues if it will be adopted in our election system which the commission definitely wants to avoid in a presidential election.
Despite the fact that a new technology might hinder plans of some to disrupt the election, the problem of not being acquainted with the new technology also goes down to other stakeholders especially the voters.
COMELEC also finds the need of producing a separate general instruction and training modules for the board of election inspectors if DRE is to be used.
Jimenez added,”Yung benefits are outweighed by the risk involved. So sa tingin ng commission, now would probably be not the time to actually do this.”
(The benefits are outweighed by the risk involved. The commission finds that, now would probably be not the right time to actually do this)
COMELEC also took into consideration the objections of some members of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Election System regarding the use of DRE.
Meanwhile, COMELEC failed to finally identify the final plan it will engage after the Supreme Court nullified the negotiated refurbishment contract with Smartmatic to prepare the PCOS machines for the 2016 polls.
The commissioners will have to go to a special en banc session on Thursday to further discuss the matter.
Dir. Jimenez said, “Hindi pa tapos ang diskusyon nila. Medyo malalim kasi ang usapan dito. We really just got the decision last week.”
(Discussions are not yet over. The issues involved are extensive. We just got the decision last week.)
VICTOR COSARE / UNTV News