THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking to start the procurement process for the new Fully Automated System with Transparency Audit and Count (FASTrAC) to be used in the May 2025 midterm elections by next month.
In a media forum yesterday in Manila, Comelec chairman George Garcia said the public bidding for the new automated election system (AES) is being penciled to begin by August or September at the latest.
“Just the other day, we came out with the Terms of Reference (TOR). It is already available on our website. Therefore, we are looking to begin the procurement by August or September,” said Garcia.
The poll official said they will open the public bidding to all qualified contractors, suppliers, and service providers.
“The Comelec is guaranteeing that everybody will have the opportunity to participate,” he said.
Garcia also assured the public that the entire procurement process will be fully transparent and “will be livestreamed for everybody to see.”
The Comelec announced last May it has decided to tap the FASTrAC system, which is an upgraded optical mark reader (OMR) paper-based automated elections system with Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) capabilities, for the 2025 polls.
This will replace the more than 90,000 units of the vote counting machines (VCM) that were used in the 2016, 2019, and 2022 polls.
Last July 19, the Comelec en banc released the TOR for the lease with option to purchase of the new AES, which features a precinct-based upgraded paper-based AES but with DRE capabilities that will still utilize a paper ballot.
The system will allow election results to be sent separately and directly from the voting machine to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, dominant majority party, dominant minority party, and citizens arm servers.
The ballot box shall include a separate box for the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) or voter’s receipts.
It also has a requirement for faster scanning of ballots, with a speed of at least 200 mm per second.
The system will also feature a higher resolution of ballot scanning with a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) and at least 8-bit JPEG image.
A larger sized screen display of at least 12 inches diagonal and minimum screen resolution of at least 1920×1080, with a privacy screen feature, is also one of its features.
After the closing of polls, the printing of Election Returns (ERs), and the transmission of results, the AES will also allow transparency for the counting of votes.
In the TOR, the Comelec will lease 126,127 voting machines; 2,200 consolidation and canvassing system; 116,127 ballot boxes; and 116,127 external batteries.
