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Besides the constitution of the board of election
inspectors (BEI), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday
said that all systems go for the coming Autonomous Region For Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM) election on August 11.
Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez
said during the weekly Kapihan ng Bayan forum at Sulu Hotel in
Quezon City that all preparations in connection with the automated
ARMM polls are already in place.
Jimenez said the composition of
the BEI, which is one of the crucial components in every election,
has not yet been established but the Comelec has already identified
those who will be included in the board.
BEIs are designated at polling
places in ARMM, every group must have at least one Information
Technology (IT) personnel accredited by the Department of Science
and Technology.
Jimenez said apart from the IT
personnel of the Comelec, the supplier, Smartmatic, will also
provide its own IT professionals.
As for the instructional
materials for the voters, Jimenez said they are using DVDs that can
be played in any DVD player, comics, posters and streamers
containing simplified voting process instructions.
At the same time, with the
preparation now all in place, the Comelec expect that it can finish
the counting and proclaim the winning candidates within 36 hours.
The Comelec also said the
contractors have also put in place generators in case of power
failure.
The Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) expressed
confidence that the security personnel they will be deploying are
enough to prevent groups from disrupting the ARMM polls.
AFP public information chief
Ernesto Torres, said the military will be imposing security similar
to the 2007 national election and they will be deploying 5,000
troops coming from the Sixth and First Infantry Divisions in
addition to the 2,000 PNP personnel.
Among the security measures that
will be put in place are the setting up of checkpoints to prevent
lawless elements from launching any attacks that will sabotage the
elections.
The military will also be
guarding a total of 3,003 machines or an average of two to three
security personnel per machine.
As for the leadership of the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been very active in
launching attacks in Central Mindanao, the AFP called on its leaders
to control their men.
“We are appealing to the MILF
leadership to show their sincerity since they admitted that their
members are the ones responsible for the attacks, they should
control them,” Torres said, adding the resumption of the peace
talks between the government and the MILF before the ARMM election
can help prevent further violence in the area.
--Jefferson Antiporda
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