Comelec to lease 93,000 machines for 2016 polls

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday announced that it will lease 93,000 optical mark readers (OMR) for the 2016 national elections.

"The Commission believes that this is the most viable, practical and safest option to pursue in our efforts to ensure the credibility of the 2016 elections," Comelec chairperson Andy Bautista said in his presentation.

According to a report from the STAR, the Comelec unanimously voted to lease all OMR machines from Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (Smartmatic-TIM) for the 2016 polls.

The Comelec cited that the new machines would be configured to address the problems encountered during the 2010 and 2013 elections.

The initial delivery of all the OMR machines is set by January 2016, allowing sufficient time for testing.

A total of 23,000 machines will be leased for P2.2 billion or P56,000 each while 71,000 machines will be leased for P7.862 billion or P68,000 each.

Smartmatic-TIM won the bidding for the lease of the OMR machines.

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