Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 21) — The Commission on Elections has issued a call for bidders to set up an Election Monitoring and Action Center (CEMAC) for the May 2022 polls for a maximum price of ₱200 million.
The monitoring hub must be fully set up two weeks before election day and will continue until May 31.
It will receive and respond to field reports sent via phone call, text, and online chat messages from Comelec personnel manning the elections here and abroad, much like a call center. These include issues encountered in polling centers, requests to troubleshoot or replace vote counting machines (VCMs), canvassing, and other operational concerns.
Comelec officials and technical experts would be onsite for the duration of the voting period, as the CEMAC will combine the National Technical Support Center, the Monitoring and Command Center, and the Office for Overseas Voting Support Center used in previous elections.
For the technical support center, the bidder should have at least 450 personnel, including first level VCM technical support staff and administrative support.
Based on bid documents, the poll body requires at least 100 call center agents onsite from April 25 to May 1, with the number to increase to at least 150 agents and technical support staff in succeeding days. CEMAC operations will be 24/7 from May 5-16, covering preparations, the actual voting day, and canvassing of ballots for the May 9 national and local elections.
“The winning bidder’s recruitment protocol shall be for the final approval of Comelec. The Comelec shall also be allowed to monitor the recruitment and training of the agents to be hired,” the poll body said.
Comelec will accept bids until November 3.
The winning bidder will be in charge of finding an office space for the command center, which must be within a 10-kilometer radius from Comelec’s headquarters in Intramuros in Manila.
The company should also provide computers and workstations and the software for the reporting system, which should be able to farm out calls to an available agent within one minute.
