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KIDAPAWAN CITY: The Citizens Coalition for Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Electoral Reforms Inc. (Citizens CARE),
announced on Sunday that it is fully prepared to deliver accurate
field reports before, during and after the August 11 regional
political exercise, reported the Philippine News Agency.
Citizens CARE enjoys the reputation as the
biggest accredited poll watchdog in Mindanao.
Chairman Salic Ibrahim, its chair, said the poll
watchdogs intend to closely observe the conduct of the regional
election, especially that this year’s ARMM polls would showcase
the Commission on Elections (Comelec) poll automation machines
backed by ample manpower to perform the “huge, yet, challenging”
task.
During the elections, the Citizens CARE would
monitor over 1,500 barangays; as they also have recruited 93
volunteer municipal election personnel to act as election monitoring
officers in over a hundred municipalities across the region.
Being the lead convener of the Regional
Coordinating Council for the ARMM polls, the Citizens CARE also
managed to establish 30 partner organizations in the region which
includes the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting,
National Movement for Free Elections, Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil
Society, Legal Network for Truthful Election, Bangsamoro Lawyers
Network, Bangsamoro Women Solidarity Forum, and Federation of United
Mindanawan Bangsamoro Women Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
“We intend to place poll volunteers in every
precinct in each village all over ARMM. This is to make sure the
ARMM elections would be monitored or closely watched by us,”
Ibrahim said.
Since June this year, poll volunteers have
undergone a series of training on poll automation and voters’
education and conducted a number of mock elections.
Ibrahim said their hopes runs high for
fraud-free ARMM polls next month.
The poll automation, he stressed, can greatly
reduce irregularities, especially in ARMM areas where cases of
electoral fraud are high.
Using computers, voters are assured their votes
will be counted quickly.
In Maguindanao, a direct recording electronic (DRE)
will be installed by the Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies Inc.
In other ARMM province-components of Lanao del
Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi, an optical
mark reader (OMR) technology would be provided by the leading Avanti
International Technologies Inc.
The fully automated DRE system uses touch screen
or touch pad technology; while the OMR method requires voters to
fill out a paper ballot and scanned by the machine for
authentication.
As this develop, the pace of the voting and
counting of poll results is expected to be much faster and chances
of fraud can be much lesser, as the automation is expected to enable
the Comelec to facilitate the movement of the voters and get the
election results almost immediately after the exercise is completed.
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