Muslim Voters Prepare For Automated Polls In Muslim Mindanao

Elections personnel teach Muslim voters in the Muslim autonomous region on how to use automated poll machines. The Philippines’ Commission on Elections says it will Direct Recording Electronic Technology in the August 11 regional polls. (Mindanao Examiner Photo / Mark Navales)

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) assured the public that the automation of the 11 August 2008 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will not disenfranchise the voters despite concerns about illiteracy in the region.

COMELEC Spokesman and Education and Information Director James Jimenez said “automated elections are actually designed to make it easier for voters who have low literacy levels.”

Smartmatic-Sahi Technology spokesman Vince Dizon, for his part, explained that the automated voting machines have been designed to make voting easier especially for disabled and illiterate voters. “It is faster and easier to use the automated voting machines than it is to write the individual names of candidates on the ballots,” he added.

Avante’s Project Manager Leo Querubin, meanwhile, emphasized that ease of voting was a major feature of ballots for optical mark reader machines (OMR).

“Unlike in the previous elections, where the voter would have to write the names of their chosen candidates, this time, voters have to simply shade the circles beside the candidates’ name,” Querubin explained.

Querubin added that they have enlisted the help of the Association of Private Colleges-ARMM to help them in the voters’ education campaign. “That way, we would be able to reach the grassroots areas in the five provinces that we would be deployed,” he said.

Jimenez further said that a comprehensive plan to educate the voters, the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) and the local election officers on the operation of the machines has been developed jointly by the COMELEC and its technology providers, Smartmatic-Sahi Technology and Avante International Technology. Both technology providers will conduct intensive municipal-based voters’ orientation programs staring July.

“Avante and Smartmatic-Sahi will conduct actual machine demonstrations, show tutorial videos and distribute instructional flyers on the voting procedures to educate the ARMM voters,” he said.

Avante’s OMR technology will be fielded in the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi; while Smartmatic-Sahi’s Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) system will be deployed in Maguindanao.

Some 1.7 million registered voters from the ARMM will elect a new Regional Governor, a new Regional Vice-Governor, and new Regional Legislative District Assemblymen.