Faster, more transparent results seen as Comelec procures new transmission system for 2025 polls

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Garcia on Tuesday said the poll body is expecting faster and more transparent transmission of election results in the 2025 national and local elections.

This, as the Comelec is set to award the contract on the Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETs) to the joint venture of iOne Resources, Inc. and Ardent Networks, Inc.

On Monday, Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco announced that the Comelec en banc has approved the recommendation to award the contract to the joint venture of iOne and Ardent "after careful examination."

Speaking to reporters in a virtual interview, Garcia said they are eyeing to sign the contract with the joint venture on Thursday morning as iOne and Ardent have complied with the terms of reference set by the poll body.

"Nag-comply naman sila sa [terms of reference] na yun, pero of course, maganda makapag-demo... tingnan kung paano ang end-to-end testing atsaka kailangan pagharapin natin  ang iOne at Miru System... para malaman natin pano magko-connect 'yung dalawang sistema," Garcia said.

(They complied with the terms of reference, but of course a demo would be preferable to see end-to-end testing and also to see if their system is compatible with that of Miru System.)

Miru Systems Company Limited will supply the automated counting machines for the 2025 polls.

Unlike in the previous automated election system, Comelec has decided to contract services solely for the transmission of votes for the 2025 midterm polls.

For the upcoming polls, Garcia explained anew that the Comelec will ditch the transparency server. Given this, the election results from the machines will be sent to the telecommunications companies.

Garcia said the joint venture of iOne and Ardent is contracted to provide the equipment to reconcile the data from the telecommunication companies before they are sent to the five citizens arms of the Comelec, the majority and minority parties, the municipal or city board of canvassers, and the poll body's national server.

"Dahil wala nang transparency server, wala nang isang entity ang may control ng transparency. Ngayon marami na tayong sources ng data na nanggagaling sa presinto na pupuwede natin ma-compare," he said. 

"Dahil walang transparency server, mas ginawa nating napaka-transparent ng ating results, madali na lang mag-compare," he added.

(Because there will no longer be a transparency server, there will be no single entity that will control transparency. Now, there will be more sources of data from the precincts that we can compare. Because there will be no transparency server, we made the results more transparent because they can easily be compared.)

A data center will be set up under this project and the election results that will be transmitted to the aforementioned entities will be mirrored by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

Further, Garcia said that the election results will be reflected on the website of the Comelec "minute per minute."

Faster consolidation of election results is likewise expected with this new transmission system.

According to Garcia, the Comelec is expecting to gather all the results early in the morning after the day of the elections.

To ensure the credibility of the transmission of election results, Garcia said the new automated election system that will be used in the 2025 polls will undergo a source code review and should pass international certification.

Despite this assurance, Garcia said the Comelec has ensured that there are various verifiable sources of the election receipts, more particularly at the polling precincts. —KBK, GMA Integrated News