Automated vote will keep date - panel

Manila: The Philippines' Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday announced that the 2010 election, the country's first completely automated ballot, will be held as scheduled.

Ferdinand Rafanan, chair of the Comelec panel that presided over the bidding of the 7.2-billion peso (Dh548.4 million) poll automation contract, said the original timeline for the elections would hold good despite delays resulting from a dispute between private firms involved in the project.

The differences have since been resolved.

"There's still enough time left to prepare the machines that will be used in the polls as well as to educate voters on the new system," he said in Filipino in an interview aired by the station Bombo Radyo.