Ben Madilynn
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) assures safeguards with the automated counting machine (ACM) which will be used during the May 2025 elections.
Atty. Lionel Marco Castillano, Negros Island Region (NIR) Regional Director made the assurance on Saturday during the demonstration of ACM in the province held at the Social Hall of the Provincial Capitol.
With the COMELEC during the ACM demonstration were personnel of service provider South Korean joint venture firm Miru Systems.
Castillano said ACM demos are part of the voters’ education campaign for the May 2025 national and local elections to raise public acceptance,
The ACM has a 14-inch touchscreen, sensor, scanner, printer, camera, universal serial bus ports, external keypad, and a voter’s receipt receptacle.
The ACM is one of the three salient features of the new Full Automation System with Transparency and Audit/Count (FASTrAC) that will be used by the Comelec in next year’s elections.
“We have safeguards for each of the steps,” Castillano assured.
Castillano said the same demos will also be held in every town and city in NIR from December to January.
“There will be one machine for each city and municipality. Before, there were only two counting machines that made the rounds in each region. This time, we will show the ACMs to each and every one,” Castillano pointed out.
During the two months, Castellano said, the COMELEC will go to the different barangays to conduct a demonstration for various sectors like the senior citizens, students, and even the political parties.”(TDE)
