The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is gearing up for the 2025 midterm elections with a massive voter education campaign and the completion of automated counting machine (ACM) deliveries.
Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia announced on Wednesday that a roadshow caravan will be conducted from 2 December 2024 to 20 January 2025 and during this period, local Comelec officials will visit communities nationwide to demonstrate the use of ACMs to the public.
“Local Comelec officers will go to communities to demonstrate how the machines work,” Garcia said.
A total of 2,000 ACMs have been distributed to barangays across the country to facilitate these demonstrations.
On Tuesday, South Korean firm Miru Systems completed the delivery of 9,860 ACMs to the Comelec, bringing the total number of machines delivered to 110,620. These machines are now undergoing rigorous hardware acceptance tests (HAT) at the Comelec warehouse.
The HAT process involves testing various hardware components, including the battery, screen, printer, camera, scanner, audio, USB ports, LED sensors, external keypad, network and HDMI.
Additionally, a random 5 percent of each batch of deliveries will undergo stress tests.
“We are proud to have finished delivery of our new and more sophisticated machines, and will continue to work diligently with the Comelec as these machines undergo strict quality control and security tests,” said Miru Systems VP Ken Cho.
The early completion of ACM deliveries is a significant milestone for the Comelec as the poll body had initially expected Miru to finish the deliveries by November, but the firm accelerated the process and completed it a month ahead of schedule.
To recall, the Comelec in September awarded Miru a P17.99-billion contract for the procurement of a new automated election system for the 2025 elections. This contract covers ACMs, peripherals, ballot boxes and laptops.
However, the contract has faced legal challenges before the Supreme Court, with allegations of violations of the poll automation law.