The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) together with Smartmatic-Sahi Technology Inc, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), Citizens Coalition for Electoral Reforms (C-Care) and other Bangsamoro civil society groups conducted its first municipal voters’ education forum at Sharif Aguak.

Hundreds of voters from Shariff Aguak attended the voters’ orientation forum conducted by the representatives from COMELEC, Smartmatic-Sahi and civil society groups. During the forum, the voters education team gave a public demonstration on the use of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) machines, distributed instructional leaflets and showed tutorial video on the actual voting process using the automated voting machines.

Provincial Election Supervisor Lita Orbase led the team in educating the local voters about the benefits of an automated system of elections.

Lita Orbase said that the local voters in the municipality of Sharif Aguak showed enthusiasm in learning the operation of automated voting machines and they all look forward to participate in the automated elections on August 11.

Vince Dizon, Spokesman of Smartmatic-Sahi said that we have developed user-friendly information materials to guide the voters on the use of the technology.

“Our machines are designed to make the voting process faster and easier for people from all ages and from all walks of life”, Dizon added.

Ibrahim Salic, Chairman of Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms said “I am confident that the people of the ARMM will be able to successfully use the automated election system”

“We believe that the voters in Maguindanao will have no problem in learning the use of these automated machines because they are user-friendly” Salic added.

COMELEC spokesman James Jimenez emphasized that the voters education team will be traveling to the 22 municipalities of Maguindanao and the rest of ARMM provinces until the end of July to ensure that the voters are prepared for the automated elections on August 11. ###