2013 Election

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that the 2013 mid-term elections in the country would be automated, but said it would go back to the manual system if the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) polls push through this year.

To prepare for the 2013 and the 2016 elections, the Comelec has been holding strategic planning among key officials during weekends to identify the strong and weak aspects of the poll body.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes said the computerization of the Comelec’s system was among moves eyed as possible strategy to ensure transparency and speed up operations in the agency.

But with the Comelec abandoning its plan to automate the ARMM polls, Smartmatic International Corp. is seeking payment for its “consultancy services.”

Com­mis­sion on Elec­tions (Com­elec) poll body might use a new tech­nol­ogy to make the 2013 com­put­er­ized elec­tions bet­ter than last year’s.

Com­elec Com­mis­sioner Lucen­ito Tagle said they are ini­ti­at­ing the prepa­ra­tions for the next national and local elec­tions using the auto­mated elec­tion sys­tem (AES) again. But Tagle, who was appointed head of the Com­elec steer­ing com­mit­tee for the 2013 polls, said they might employ a new technology.

“This doesn’t mean that Smart­matic will be barred from join­ing. They can still be our ser­vice provider in 2013 if they can win our pub­lic bid­ding,” Tagle said.

Smart­matic pro­vided the Com­elec with the precinct count opti­cal scan (PCOS) machines used in the 2010 polls. Crit­ics of the tech­nol­ogy, how­ever, con­tinue to ques­tion the integrity of such a technology.

Tagle said the Com­elec is already in the process of com­plet­ing the mem­ber­ship of the com­mit­tee that would pre­pare for the next nation­als and local elections.


Philippines 2013 Election

The Legislative elections and local elections will be held on May 13, 2013. The duly elected legislators of the 2013 elections will join the elected senators of the 2010 elections and will comprise the 16th Congress of the Philippines. The elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will also be held.

This is to elect 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate. Together with those elected in 2010, they will comprise the 16th Congress. The senators elected in 2010 will serve until June 30, 2016, while the senators elected in this election will serve up to June 30, 2019.

The elections to the House of Representatives as well as local elections will occur on the same date. The Philippines uses plurality-at-large voting for seats in the Senate: the twelve candidates with the highest amount of votes wins the twelve seats up for election.

The Senate seat vacated by President Benigno Aquino III in 2010 will be among the twelve seats to be put for election.

Stay tuned for the 2013 Election Latest News Update and Result.