Last updated on December 17, 2013

When the Philippines began to implement its new optical-scan ballot-counting system, the Commission on Elections’s (COMELEC) Project Management Office embarked on a widespread public acceptance program with three objectives: first, to educate the electorate on how the automated electoral system worked; second, to promote acceptance of the system as a guarantee of speedy and credible results; and third, to manage expectations. Dissemination of messages for the campaign through private TV networks was critical for its success, as was ongoing engagement with the media on Election Day. While the COMELEC’s policy of open and transparent engagement with the media was challenging at times, the Commission believed that it was a considerable asset to engage and inform the media in such an open manner.

The three major TV networks considered it part of their corporate social responsibility to spread information about the new ballot-counting machines, and as a result, developed and aired information clips in the run-up to the election at no cost to the government. The core content of these information clips was approved by COMELEC to ensure accuracy and consistency. One network released a music video that featured a well-known dance troupe singing a catchy tune about the automated election system. This tune became so pervasive that it was one of the most recognizable tunes in the country at the time. Even children knew the lyrics to the song, and voters waiting in line on Election Day were observed singing it together.

On Election Day COMELEC deployed over 40,000 technical staff to monitor how the new technology was working. All issues were reported to a situation room in the capital. COMELEC adopted a policy of transparency about these incidents. A press center was placed in the situation room, and COMELEC kept the press fully informed about any reported problems, even those that did not reflect well on COMELEC. The result of this was that the media were well informed throughout Election Day about issues that had arisen as well as COMELEC’s response to these issues, and the coverage that this provided meant that COMELEC was easily able to get airtime to explain what was being done about reported problems.³⁶

^{36 Taken from a presentation by Gregorio Larrazabal, former COMELEC commissioner.}