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As colorful as the national elections, Marikina’s politics is nevertheless just as exciting come May 2010. Four (4) of the incumbent city councilors’ terms will be ending on May 2010 and some of them seek re-election in higher positions. The incumbent Vice Mayor, Dr. Marion S. Andres’ term will also be ending on May 2010 and he has chosen to run the Mayoralty race and will be competing with three (3) other candidates. Five (5) candidates will also be vying for the Vice Mayor’s position.

Candidates will be coming from five (5) parties namely: Bagumbayan-VNP, Lakas Kampi CMD, Liberal Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition and Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino. Candidates who were not picked by any party will brave their way to the local elections as Independent candidates.

A complete list of the official candidates for the 2010 local elections in Marikina City are as follows:

MAYOR:

Marion Santos Andres a.k.a. Dr. Marion – Bagumbayan VNP

Alfredo Senga Cheng a.k.a. Boy – Lakas Kampi CMD

Del Reyes De Guzman a.k.a. Del – Liberal Party

Johnn Alexander San Pedro Chong a.k.a. Alex Chong – Independent

The Smartmatic, a Dutch based company, earlier won the public bidding conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the automation of the 2010 elections. The contract signing between the Comelec and Smartmatic  for the said project is supposed to be held tomorrow. However, due to some irreconcilable differences in some of the provisions of the contract between Smartmatic and its local counterpart, Total Information Management (TIM), the contract signing will have to be cancelled to another date.

As the laws of the Philippines provide, the Smartmatic needs to have a local counterpart to handle the transactions here in the Philippines who must own 60% ownership of the consortium.

Comelec Chairman Jose A.R. Melo, said that they are giving the Smartmatic and TIM until July 10, 2009 to settle their differences. The Comelec is likewise studying whether or not a case should be filed against TIM. Chairman Melo likewise said that the Comelec is willing to become Smartmatic’s partner in this project if it’s the only way to push through with the automation of elections on 2010.

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has given the Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) the notice of award for the P7.2 billion  contract for the election automation project for the 2010 elections.

The Smartmatic-TIM will be supplying precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be installed on the 82,000 polling precincts nationwide. However, the contract is still being prepared by the COMELEC, in consultation with other stakeholders.

Smartmatic-TIM sales director Cesar Flores said that the result of the elections will be known two (2) days after the election is conducted.

Mr. Flores announced that they are willing to reveal the source code of the system as demanded by the critics. He added that the consortium encourages the critics to review the source code as it is one of the ways that would enable the different political parties to be comfortable with the system.

During the 2nd part of the ANC Leadership Forum held on Friday at the U.P. Diliman campus, MMDA Chairman Bayani “BF” Fernando confirmed that he is running for the presidency on the 2010 Presidential Elections. The three other guests, Former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, Sen. Loren Legarda, and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, did not confirm their candidacy for the said post. Among them, only Fernando has long been very vocal in answering questions as to his desire to run as President.

Chairman BF served as the City Mayor of Marikina for three (3) consecutive terms and has transformed Marikina into one of the best-managed cities. He has always been an advocate of  discipline and good governance.