Overview

Halalan is an open-source voting system designed for student elections. It aims to automate the manual processes of elections such as counting, archiving, and voting. It is designed to be easy-to-use and secure.

It is currently being developed and maintained by the UP Linux Users' Group (UnPLUG), a student organization from the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Objectives

• Develop an easy-to-use and secure voting system for student elections to lower their costs and make them run efficiently.
• Prove that the result of a computerized election is valid and trustworthy.
• Increase voters turnout by providing a convenient way to vote.

Development Team

• Ardee Aram
• Darwin Bautista
• Waldemar Bautista
• John Michael Bitanga
• Rystraum Fabe Gamonez
• Conrad Miguel Gozalo
• Elizabeth Loyola
• Mary Macapagal
• Jamaica Ida Palce
• Antonio Mari San Miguel
• Carlo Santos

Former Members

• Ralph Justin Arce
• Vanessa Rose Castro
• Diwa del Mundo
• Kyle Alaine Domingo
• Mark David Dumlao
• Jofell Gallardo
• Wigi Vei Oliveros
• Prem Vilas Fortan Rara
• Marte Raphael Soliza
• DJ Sison
• Jennylyn Sze
• Orly Tarun

Thanks To

• Jose Paolo Ferrer
• Aisa Ibrahim
• Pio Ryan Lumongsod
• Christianne Mogarte
• Jesse Nikko Ramos
• Adrian Raposas
• Lew Arvin Sibal

Donors

• Kyle Alaine Domingo
• Conrad Miguel Gozalo
• Wigi Vei Oliveros
• Mary Macapagal

HP2-Z34 >>
CWNA-106 >>
PMI-SP >>
OG0-091 >>
PMI-RMP >>
1Z0-052 >>
70-487 >>
A00-280 >>
JN0-633 >>
C_HANAIMP142 >>
300-206 >>
1Z0-457 >>
1Z0-511 >>
640-911 >>
MB6-703 >>
9L0-066 >>
JN0-332 >>
HP0-S42 >>
1Z0-470 >>
AHM-250 >>
599-01 >>
1Z0-507 >>
300-070 >>
9A0-142 >>
MB2-704 >>
1Z1-574 >>
070-687 >>
M70-201 >>
1Z0-061 >>
070-516 >>
PMI-001 >>
070-457 >>
C_TB1200_90 >>
NS0-506 >>
BH0-006 >>
1Z1-535 >>
NSE4 >>
1Z0-062 >>
CBAP >>
GD0-110 >>
400-201 >>
HP2-N46 >>
4A0-M02 >>
JN0-100 >>
1Z0-531 >>
70-482 >>
VCP550 >>
1Y0-301 >>
1Z0-228 >>
117-201 >>
70-494 >>
70-483 >>

History

During UnPLUG's application for organization recognition for the academic year 2004-2005, Ms. Olivette of the Office of Student Activities (OSA) mentioned their hardships on running the yearly University Student Council (USC) elections.

If a program can be developed to automate the elections, it can reduce the costs of the elections, eliminate manual counting, and make it convenient for voters to vote thus making the elections efficient. This idea of computerized elections kindled the start of the Halalan Open Source Voting System.

A group of enthusiastic and passionate UnPLUG members was formed to spearhead the development and advocacy of the project. The initial group was composed of:

Having lunch at Kamay Kainan, Kalayaan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City, circa 2005.
From left to right clockwise: Kyle Alaine Domingo, Diwa del Mundo, Waldemar Bautista, Ardee Aram, and Jofell Gallardo.

All were BS Computer Science students except for Jofell Gallardo who was a BS Computer Engineering student from the Department of Computer Science and Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, respectively.

The group developed the initial version of Halalan using PHP and PostgresSQL. A working prototype was finished on December 2004.

The group spent the first quarter of 2005 advocating for the system to be used for the upcoming University Student Council (USC) and other college-based elections on March 2005.

They partnered with the USC 2004-2005 administration under the leadership of Kris Ablan to advocate the system. USC helped in the advocacy, marketing, and press releases of the system.

On the college-level elections, the three major colleges, namely Engineering, Business Administration, and Social Sciences and Philosophy, were enthusiastic to deploy the system to their respective college student council elections.

However, the computer laboratories of these colleges were not ready for the huge number of expected voters for the elections. This prompted the election administration of the colleges to withheld the computerization.

Since the computerization of college-based elections was not possible, it meant the same for the university-wide election.

The Halalan team also didn't get the blessings of the University Computer Center for implementation due to some software glitches and the readiness of the election process for a drastic move for computerization.

UnPLUG was ready to continue the project for the next academic year, 2005-2006, but the members of the Halalan team had different plans. Diwa and Jofell left school to work, Waldenar and Kyle focused on their academics while occasionally doing consulting work, and Ardee was aiming to graduate with honors.

Halalan was dead.

Fast track after almost a year and a half, Halalan made a big come back for the academic year 2006-2007.

Veterans Diwa and Waldemar were dedicated than ever in developing, finishing, and implementing Halalan. A new team was form to restart the project.

They vowed to automate at least the Engineering Student Council election before they graduate from UP (if ever they will). With their experience in developing applications in the IT industry, the execution of the Halalan project was better than ever.

Long live Halalan! Mabuhay!