During the joint congressional meeting on automated elections held at the Senate, Melo said the amount is estimated to fully cover a combination of two technologies. They are 75 percent Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) system and 25 percent Optical Mark Reader (OMR) for the country’s whole voting population.

Melo admitted that the earlier assessment of Comelec officials that it would need more than P50 billion to be able to implement an automated election in 2010 was not accurate.

"We are revising our budgets. Iyong budget na na-publish masyadong malaki dahil ang ginawa kasi noon, our people just got the per cost of the machines used during the ARMM elections and then multiplied it with the number of voters nationwide and they came up with a figure. Now that is not very accurate, because as you have more voters, bumababa ang costing," Melo said.

"So now, we will review again this figures and Smartmatic and Avante (providers) will be meeting with the (Comelec) advisory council," Melo added.

However, the Comelec has qualms that Congress would be able to provide the necessary budget to the poll body, considering that the amount is too vast.

"I do not think Congress will appropriate much for that. What would be feasible is a combination, DRE and OMR but titingnan natin (We will see). But our fallback position would be of course, kung talagang malaki pa rin, would be OMR. That is the least expensive. But mas maganda talaga ang DRE," Melo said.

But Sen. Richard J. Gordon, chairman of the joint congressional committee on automated election system, said that the Comelec should revise its budget and ask Malacañang to advance its budget so it would be able to meet the requirements for the full computerization of elections less than three years from now.

"The Senate does not interfere with Comelec functions, but our concern now is to give the Comelec enough time so that there will be no more excuses in the implementation of a fully automated 2010 elections," Gordon said.

50 M voters in 2010

The Comelec gears up for 50 million registered voters in the May 10, 2010 elections as it drafts budget proposals for nationwide poll automation ranging from as high as R61.9 billion and as low as R6.1 billion depending on the technology to be used.

The budget proposals, prepared by a Comelec technical committee, will be submitted shortly to Malacañang and Congress which is currently tackling the R1.415-trillion proposed national budget for 2009.

The Comelec considers the estimated number of registered voters a big factor in making budget proposals for the nationwide automation of 2010 elections in which more than 17,000 officials, including the President and Vice President, will be elected.

Poll officials said the number of registered voters could go up from 46 million in the Oct. 19, 2007 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections to 50 million in the May 10, 2010 presidential, congressional, local, and party-list polls.

Comelec plans to resume the registration of voters under Republic Act (RA) No. 8189 or The Voters Registration Act of 1996 that provides a continuing system of registration sometime in November this year.