We trust that Comelec will engage the most qualified, capable, and proven performer in automated elections technologies
Serious concern on the problematic track record of the lone bidder in the Comelec’s ongoing tender for the purchase of the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count or the “FASTract” project – to be deployed in the 2025 mid-term elections – has been raised by election watchdog Democracy Watch Philippines, an official observer of this ongoing procurement process.
The components of the P18.8-billion FASTract project include: over 90,000 automated counting machines to replace vote counting machines (VCM) used in the 2016 and 2019 elections, ballots, canvassing, and all materials needed to operationalize the automated election system.
A separate bidding will be held for internet voting and transmission.
Of the six parties that showed interest, only Miru was able to submit its bid.
SMMT-TIM 2016, Incorporated (Smartmatic) which supplied all the past automated elections was disqualified from all Comelec biddings “to uphold the integrity” of Comelec, pointing to the still unresolved claims that Smartmatic was involved in bribing a former Comelec Chairman for the 2016 automated elections contract.
Smartmatic had been the technology provider since the Comelec implemented automated elections in 2010, which saw the most peaceful, speediest, and credible elections in Philippine history, giving legitimacy and stable transition of opposing administrations.
Smartmatic had protested the ‘unfair disqualification’ and is pursuing legal remedies. Smartmatic actually showed up to submit its proposal but was not accepted.
The first bidding last Dec 14 was actually declared by the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) a “failure of competitive bidding” as Miru failed to comply with some documentary requirements and was therefore found “ineligible.”
One would think these technical lapses in submissions should not happen to a serious, and professional proponent vying to supply an automated election system that must not fail.
Still the lone bidder, the South Korean firm finally passed the eligibility check of the 2nd round of bidding last week and will now undergo the more stringent post-qualification evaluation wherein SBAC has vowed to scrupulously check the authenticity of all submitted documents and the financial and technical competence of Miru.
Together with the Democracy Watch team, we initiated an online research on past elections wherein Miru’s technology was deployed.
It did not take much to find over 20 articles reporting alarming instances of machine failures and irregularities in the recent elections of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq.
To cite some examples, in DRC elections last Dec 20, there were still no results as of Jan 4, that’s already 15 days!
If you recall in our last presidential elections, we already knew that President Bongbong Marcos Jr. won just hours after the polls closed and many local positions were already awarded.
Local observers from Election Observation Mission of the Catholic and Protestant Churches reported over 45 percent of the polling stations malfunctioned, forcing the extension of voting period.
In contrast to what happened here, the May 9, 2022 report of PCIJ reported only 1.8 percent encountered issues but contingencies were in place to rectify them accordingly.
It was much worse in Iraq where 75 percent of voting machines failed during the first round of voting, forcing what can only be a very messy shift to manual count.
The way our voters are very passionate and how hotly contested local elections can be, you can imagine how dangerous this can become.
This actually puts into perspective how efficient automated elections in the Philippines have been, so far.
In its posted statement, Democracy Watch urged Comelec “to give Miru’s track record a thorough once-over as part of its due diligence, as it should with all suppliers. It might want to investigate the company’s alleged links to controversies in Congo and Argentina.
“Such concerns over hacking vulnerabilities and vote manipulation are so grave as to have prompted watchdog groups and independent experts to flag many fatal weaknesses in Miru’s technology publicly.”
Democracy Watch Philippines has officially submitted a letter pointing out these issues to the Comelec SBAC and copied Chairman Garcia, the other commissioners, and also the other election watchdogs Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and NAMFREL.
Now that this is out in the open, we trust that Comelec will engage the most qualified, capable, and proven performer in automated elections technologies who can deliver a much better election experience in 2025.
We must not compromise the stability of our democracy.