11 April 2016 – The Philippine Embassy in Rome successfully conducted the Final Testing and Sealing (FTS) of the Vote Counting Machines (VCM) on April 07.

Philippine Ambassador to Italy Domingo P. Nolasco explained to the members of the Filipino community the process of casting and feeding their ballots to the VCMs.

The Filipino community in Rome actively participated in testing the working conditions of the VCMs which will be used in the upcoming national elections. Filipinos who attended the FTS were given the opportunity to accomplish FTS sample ballots and feed them to the VCMs.

The FTS aims to check the accuracy, completeness and security of the VCMs before they are utilized come election day. After the FTS, the VCMs will be opened on April 09, the first day of overseas voting.

The Philippine Embassy in Rome is one of the 30 Foreign Service Posts which will implement Automated Election System (AES). The overseas voting will run from April 09 to May 09.END