The Philippine Embassy in Rome conducts Final Testing and Sealing of the Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) on 10 April 2019.

ROME, 12 April 2019 – The Philippine Embassy in Rome, conducted the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) of the Vote Counting Machines (VCM) from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm on 10 April 2019 in preparation for the overseas voting for the 2019 National Elections.

The members of the Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI), composed of two groups, performed diagnostic test of the features of the VCMs. Thereafter, they demonstrated the process of casting and feeding the accomplished sample ballots to the VCMs before the accredited media, watchers and the Filipino Community in Rome.

The FTS ensures the accuracy and security of the features and functions of the VCMs, which will be used during the overseas voting from 13 April to 13 May 2019.

This is the second time that the Automated Election System (AES) will be implemented by the Philippine Embassy in Rome. The first AES was conducted during the 2016 National Elections. END

Filipino Community representatives were given the chance to perform mock voting using the sample ballots which were fed to the machines during the Final Testing and Sealing of the VCMs on 10 April 2019.

Accredited watchers check the printed reports obtained from the machines during the Final Testing and Sealing of the VCMS.