by magnolia_eic | Apr 21, 2010 | Election 2010, Headlines, National News
ALL ballots to be used for the Philippines’ first nationwide automated polls will be printed within the week, days before its April 25 deadline, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.
“Printing of ballots” will be finished “within the week,” Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said at a press briefing on Monday.
This was confirmed by Cesar Flores, president of the Asian office of Smartmatic, the company contracted by the Comelec to print ballots and supply poll machines.
Smartmatic will be able to finish ballot printing by April 23 or 24 because it was able to meet its target of printing a million ballots a day in the past few weeks.
As of Monday, 46.860 million of the more than 50 million ballots to be used in the May polls have already been printed, Larrazabal said.
Earlier, the Comelec brought a fifth Kodak printer to the National Printing Office in Quezon City — where the ballots are being printed — to speed up the process.
The Comelec plans to invite the media and the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Poll Automation on the day when the last ballot rolls out of the printer, Larrazabal added. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Apr 15, 2010 | Election 2010, Headlines, National News
Party-list group Alyansa ng Media at Showbiz (AMS) asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to approve early voting of the members of the media Wednesday.
In a three-page petition, the party reasoned that media workers might not be able to vote on election day because they have to work to cover the polls.
“The worst thing that could happen to a Filipino citizen is to be deprived of his right to vote,” the group said.
The group asked the Comelec to allow members of the media to vote during their systems test, and use this opportunity to identify problems in the use of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.
The media, on the other hand, will be better informed about the voting process before the actual synchronized national elections.
The group also petitioned that the votes cast during the systems test period be counted as official. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Apr 15, 2010 | Election 2010, Headlines, National News
To thwart possible attacks against members of the judiciary, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Commission on Elections to exempt over 2,000 judges nationwide from the coverage of the election gun ban.
The call came in the wake of separate bombing attacks that might have targeted judges Silvino Pampilo Jr. of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 26 and Leo Principe of the Basilan Regional Trial Court Branch 1.
In an interview with reporters, SC administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the high tribunal “condemns in the strongest possible term” the twin attacks.
The Comelec implemented the nationwide gun ban last January 10 to avert election-related violence. Marquez said he made the request as early as January, but the poll body has yet to act on the matter.
“We reiterate to the Comelec our call to review its policy that disallows a gun ban exemption on our judges. We have been asking this since,” Marquez said.
He added that the exemption would enable judges to handle controversial cases without fear of retaliatory attacks from aggrieved parties and litigants, especially during the election period. (PIA-Bohol)
by magnolia_eic | Apr 13, 2010 | Election 2010, Headlines, National News
Manila, Philippines — The Commission on Elections backtracked on its plan to re-bid the contract for the purchase of indellible ink for the May 10 elections saying that the bidder whom they thought had failed, apparently did not fail after all.
However, the Comelec has confirmed the holding of another bid for the purchase of 80,000 ultraviolet lamps, after the failure to comply of all three bidders of necessary requirements. The controversial OTC Paper Supply was one of those bidders.
Click here for full article from Inquirer.net
