MANILA, Philippines - All machines that will be used in the May 10 elections will be in the Philippines by February 21, an official of poll automation supplier Smartmatic said.

Smartmatic is the Venezuelan company that is manufacturing the Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) machines that will be used in the 2010 elections. Its local partner is Total Information Management (TIM).  

Cesar Flores, International Sales Director of Smartmatic, said on ABS-CBN News Channel’s (ANC) E-Leksyon Forum held Friday at ABS-CBN’s Dolphy Theater that all the 82,200 PCOS machines will already be in the country by next month.

“About 40,000 (PCOS machines) are in the Philippines,” he said.

At a Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) forum last September, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Director Jose Tolentino assured the media that all the machines will be in the country by December 2009.

However, only 30,000 machines were delivered last December. Comelec chair Jose Melo said there was a delay in delivery because of the higher shipping costs during the holiday season. (Read: Real reason for poll counting machines delay bared)

Flores, during the ANC forum, did not mention that high shipping cost was the reason for the delay in the delivery.

However, he said the manufacturing of 70,000 machines—with the customizations requested by Comelec—is nearly complete.

“By next week, it will be done,” Flores said.

He said that every time Smartmatic's contractor in China finishes manufacturing between 9,000 to 10,000 PCOS machines, these are shipped right away to the Philippines.

Delays not due to production

Flores said that delays, based on the schedule prepared by Comelec, are not linked to the arrival of the machines in the country.

“Not all activities related to elections are tied to the machines,” Flores said.

Last year, Melo already admitted delays based on the poll body’s automation schedule. (Watch the video: Comelec admits delays in poll automation)
 
He mentioned that voters’ education would only need 200 PCOS machines, and that the delivery of all the machines is not needed to implement voters’ education.

Voters’ education was previously scheduled on January 2010. Director Tolentino of Comelec also said in a FOCAP forum last September that the Board of Election Inspectors’ (BEI) training would begin February 2010.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that they are still working on the BEI training module and manual, and that training would now begin in March.

Machine forwarders finalized

Cargo forwarders of the machines to different regions and provinces in the country have already been secured by Smartmatic, said Flores.

“We already have all logistic providers,” he added.

They have different carriers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, Flores said. For each major island, he said they made sure that these forwarders will be able to deliver the machines to the different polling centers.

Upon arrival of the PCOS machines in the polling centers, Larrazabal said notifications will be sent to the Philippine National Police, Department of Education and other concerned agencies that the machines already arrived.

This is supposed to help ensure security and proper handling of the machines, said Larrazabal.

There will be 76,000 clustered precincts for the May 10 national and local elections.