The 2016 Philippine Elections has proven to be a huge
success not just for the country but for the Philippine Commission on Elections
(Comelec), which has been reaping accolades from around the world for its role
in administering one of the largest, fastest, and most credible elections in
Philippine history.
Undeniably, it is also another sterling feat for Smartmatic;
one which further reinforces its global market leadership.
A lot of factors underpin this accomplishment, not least of
which are the efforts of two Smartmatic Dragon Awardees - Fe Ordoño and Nonoy
Escolin.
For Fe, who is Bid Manager for Smartmatic Philippines, key
to the success of the project started with the early preparation for the
tender. “To be ready for the bids, high-level planning and preparation of
potential eligibility requirements with corporate and senior management started
almost six months prior to the bid publication,” Fe said.
Her experienced team ensured that documents were in
compliance with all the local procurement law in advance, hence, getting a good
head start in the process. “It was really a team effort. The whole APAC team, with
the support of corporate, was on bidding and contract negotiation mode for almost
one and a half year. We were working on an average of one bid per month, so it
was a very exciting and stressful period,” she added.
Fe’s
leadership proved efficient as Smartmatic won the most important tenders to
provide the automation platform for the General Elections. Putting the
experience of its previous two Philippine elections in practice, Smartmatic was
able to work with the Comelec to guarantee the election ran smoothly.
As a Filipino voter, Fe believes that the 2016 elections
were yet another leap forward in terms of transparency and efficiency. “Automation
brought cleaner and peaceful elections, better transparency, faster count and
election results,” Fe said, adding that Filipinos will expect at least the same
bench mark for future elections.
When asked to compare automated elections with the previous manual
elections in her country, Fe cited the speedy release of election results as
the game-changer. “This change equate to more peaceful election as the “dagdag bawas” syndrome, rampant in
previous manual elections, was corrected.”
Having seen the process of technology adoption from up
close, Fe believes that other countries wishing to shift to automated elections
could definitely take a leaf from the Philippine experience. For her, all
efforts should be made to circumvent the usual barriers to election
modernization, that is, political will, and budget.
The two-time Dragon Awardee also advices other countries
aspiring to implement technology in their elections to collaborate closely with
all the major stakeholders to ensure that automation gets the needed push.
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