Comelec extends local source code review until January 2025

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has extended the ongoing review of local source codes for the 2025 national and local elections (NLE) until January 2025.

In a memorandum dated December 16, Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia approved the request of the local source code review (LSCR) committee for an extension  to “allow for a more thorough review of the systems and source codes to be used during the 2025 NLE”.

“Consequently, the undersigned favorably endorses the request for your Honor's approval to extend the LSCR until January 2025,” it said.

LSCR committee chief John Rex Laudiangco, in filing the request, said the extension is necessary as the “source codes currently being reviewed are not yet the secured versions of the systems intended for the final trusted build.”

Laudiangco also said the committee invited university students to tour the LSCR facility to "foster greater transparency and awareness of the technologies underpinning COMELEC's AES while generating increased public engagement and confidence in the election process."

The poll body started the LSCR review, which included the source codes for the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) and Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) for overseas voters for next year’s elections, in October. It was initially slated to end in December.

The source codes serve as the “brain” which will instruct the automated counting machines (ACMs) to execute their functions during the election day.

Following its review, the notes and observations from the LSCR will be submitted to the international certifying entity for the international certification of the 2025 AES.

Section 12 of Republic Act No. 9369 stipulates that “once an AES technology is selected for implementation, the Commission shall promptly make the source code of that technology available and open to any interested party or group which may conduct their own review thereof." — RSJ, GMA Integrated News