Comelec foresees more transparent, enhanced 2025 polls

THE Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) proposed automated election system (AES) for the 2025 polls will adopt mechanisms meant to improve the transparency of the voting process in the country, Comelec chairman George Garcia said.

Under the Fully Automated System with Transparency Audit and Count (FASTrAC) platform, Garcia said voters would be allowed to verify their votes through ballot images on automated counting machines even as watchers and political camps would be allowed to take pictures of the election returns after transmission.

“Makikita ng botante ang balota na kanyang hinulog back and [front] yung mismong ballot image,” Garcia said in an interview on Dobol B TV.

For the visually impaired persons, Garcia said there would be an audio feature where the machine would read the votes cast by the voter.

Apart from this, Garcia said citizens’ arms and political groups would automatically receive a copy of the election returns— a mechanism which he said was non- existent in the automated election system since it was implemented in 2010.

“Hindi na po tayo gagamit ng mismong transparency server na nagiging issue before yung sinasabi before na ‘meet me room.’ Ngayon po ang gusto natin ‘yung citizens arm, majority party, minority party…ay automatic na mapapadalhan ng result ng mismong galing sa presinto, sa makina mismo. Wala nang ibang dadaanan,” he said.

“So ‘yung mga entities na ‘yan ay pwedeng magkumparahan kung ano ba ang pinadala ng presinto na ito ay same na pinadala sa lahat,” he added.