The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and the ICT-Office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is calling on the reconstitution of the COMELEC Advisory Council (CAC) to provide recommendations on the Automated Election System (AES) for the upcoming 2016 National and Local Elections.

The CAC will be made up of nine members from the academe, non-government electoral reform organisations, ICT professional organisations and select government agencies. They will be tasked with providing recommendations on the most appropriate, secure, applicable and cost-effective technology to be applied in the AES.

Previous CAC members were composed of senior decision makers from agencies such as the Department of Education, DOST, Philippine Computer Society, University of the Philippines, Consortium of Electoral Reforms, CIO forum and the Philippines Electronics and Telecommunications Federation.

According to an official statement the COMELEC and ICTO-DOST is calling the early formation of the council so that they can prepare the budget requirements and ensure that the relevant stakeholders have enough time to provide their necessary input.

“We are hopeful that with the early convening of the CAC for the upcoming 2016 automated election, we can minimise potential security issues that came up in the previous elections such as the late release of the source code,” said Louis Casambre, CAC Chairman and Executive Director of the ICTO-DOST.