Comelec: 5 foreign firms eye supply contract for poll machines

Five foreign companies have expressed intention to supply the optical mark reader (OMR) machines that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will use in the 2010 polls.

According to Comelec Chairman Jose Melo, these companies are based in the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea and Venezuela.

“They are very much interested to bid. But of course, we told them that they have to get Filipino partners first,” he said in an interview.

Melo is expecting this number to grow as the Comelec has already decided to use OMR machines over direct recording electronic (DRE) machines. 

The agency tested both technologies in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections last August.

But unlike in the ARMM polls when OMR was used only for voting purposes, the Comelec wants an “improved version” of OMR wherein it will also count, canvass and consolidate ballots.

The poll chief said they also want OMR counting machines to be placed inside polling precincts to speed up the electoral process.

In the ARMM elections, people voted by shading the ovals corresponding to the names of their candidates that were printed on the paper. 

Ballot boxes were then transported to automated counting and canvassing centers.

Comelec Commissioner Lucenito Tagle said the poll body and the Advisory Council on Poll Automation are now in the process of drafting the terms of reference that would contain the financial and technical requirements that bidders would have to comply with.

“We are drafting the terms of reference but under the law, we cannot bid unless we already have the budget. Our target is Feb. 15 but we might be able to get the budget sooner than that,” Tagle added. – Sheila Crisostomo