As part of the multi-stage research, education and election monitoring project Project 30-30 funded by the European Union, the Center for People’s Empowerment in Governance and the Computer Professionals’ Union, together with project partners National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Council for People’s Development and Governance, Health Alliance for Democracy, and the National Union of People’s Lawyers are organizing Troubleshooting Poll Automation: The Post-May 2010 Election ICT Conference.

With the objective of assessing technical concerns and issues related to the entire process of the automated elections, the different poll monitoring efforts that cooperated with Project 30-30, and formulating technical and policy recommendations, we encourage all stakeholders in the ICT community: professionals, advocates, and the academe to participate in this conference.

The electoral battle might be over, but questions on the credibility of the Automated Election System continue to go unanswered. The various efforts inelection monitoring conducted by the network developed through the Project 30-30’s pre-election national conference on citizen electoral monitoring last April 24, 2010 have shown numerous reports of pollirregularities.

The syste m vulnerabilities that IT experts have been warning the Comelec manifested during and after the electoral exercise last May 10. Vote Report PH, in cooperation with poll watchdog Kontra Daya’s network, has reported a total of highly credible 654 cases. Various real-time observations through #Juanvote citizen journalism have shown us the problems faced by voters step-by-step.

This conference will be held on June 26, 2010, 1:00 – 5:00pm at the Bulwagang Tandang Sora, College of Social Work and Community Development in UP Diliman. Attached is the invitation. Please confirm your attendance through secretariat@cp-union.com. We hope for your kind and immediate consideration.