06 April 2016 – The Philippine Embassy in Rome hosted a refresher training for the Philippine Embassies in Rome, London, Madrid and Tel Aviv in preparation for the Automated Election System (AES) during the 2016 Presidential election. The training focused on the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) of Vote Counting Machines (VCM) last week.

In Europe, the AES will only be available in the Embassies in Rome, London, Madrid, and the Philippine Consulate General in Milan.

The FTS is the final preparation to safeguard the accuracy and security of the VCMs before these are used during the elections. The FTS stage checks if VCMs are working and seals them till overseas absentee voting begin.

The FTS course was a follow-through training for Philippine Posts in Europe for the implementation of the AES. From March 15 to 17, the Philippine Embassy in Rome hosted the onsite training on the conduct of overseas absentee voting.

The onsite training was a capacity-building course for Embassy personnel deputized by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to implement the AES. Deputized Embassy officials function as election inspectors, canvassers, and custodians for overseas absentee voting. END