Cotabato City – The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) conducted its first provincial public forum organized by the ARMM-based Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), one of the biggest church-based election watchdog.

Key leaders from the Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, Legal Network for truthful elections (LENTE), NAMFREL and Bishop Ulama Council participated in the public forum.

Regional Election Director Ray Sumalipao welcomed the positive support shown by the key civil society organizations in ARMM for the automated elections.

Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies Inc and Avante International Technology welcomed this opportunity to present a public demo of their respective machines and technologies.

“It is our commitment to involve all election watchdogs and other stakeholders in education to make this automated elections in ARMM a big success”, says James Jimenez, Education and Information Department Director and COMELEC Spokesperson.

“Together with our service providers, AVANTE and SMARTMATIC-SAHI, we will move around the entire region of ARMM to educate the voters and build partnerships with ARMM-based election watchdogs.” Jimenez added.

“Together with AVANTE, we will support COMELEC in the implementation of an intensive information campaign, said Vince Dizon, spokesperson of Smartmatic-Sahi joint venture.

Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies Inc.  will install a direct recording electronic (DRE) system in Maguindanao while Avante International Technologies Inc. will provide optical mark reader (OMR) technology for the other five ARMM provinces, namely, Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The DRE system uses touch-screen or touch-pad technology and is fully automated from the voting to counting and final transmission of results to the canvassing centers at the provincial and regional levels.  OMR Technology, on the other hand, requires voters to fill out a paper ballot which is scanned by specially-designed machines.

Recently, a variety of organizations in ARMM and Mindanao signed a memorandum of agreement which provides for the merging and sharing of resources to “establish a single network of volunteer monitors and watchers in which will take the lead in monitoring, watching and canvassing of votes in the 2008 ARMM.