Poll regulators are now ready to conduct a demo of South Korean firm Miru Systems’ new automated election system for the 2025 national and local elections in front of lawmakers.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman George Garcia said that the poll body will conduct the demo in front of lawmakers in Congress on March 5.
Garcia, quoted by reports, said: “In our contract negotiations with Miru, one of our requests would be that the machines need to be demonstrated to our countrymen, especially to the authorities such as the Senate and Congress, so that their doubts will be erased and they themselves will be able to get answers to the questions.”
Garcia said the demo will be done before the manufacturing of vote counting machines (VCMs) begins.
On Thursday, Comelec awarded the P17.99 billion contract for VCMs for the 2025 elections to the South Korean firm.
Garcia said that Miru Systems will lease to the Comelec around 110,000 machines and peripherals including ballot boxes, laptops, and other printing requirements for the 2025 polls.
The poll body said it also conducted end-to-end testing of the prototype machines of Miru as part of its post-qualification evaluation for the procurement of a new automated election system.
Back then, the poll body’s Special Bids and Awards Committee also held a mock election using Miru’s systems.
“What we want is a process that is transparent. This must be understood by the voters. In the end, our countrymen will be the ones who will use the machines. It’s very difficult if they don’t understand that,” the poll chief said.
Lawmakers, election watchdogs, and other groups earlier expressed concern and called on the Comelec to review Miru’s track record.
Miru Systems however said the allegations of election failures due to its technology were not true.
“The company designs, develops, and manufactures secure electoral systems that are of international standard,” Miru said in a statement.
“Throughout the years we have conducted several projects locally and abroad… and developed multiple systems internally for all types of electoral stages,” Marcelo Daniel Magaña, Miru overseas sales representative, said in a separate statement.
Miru is joined by Integrated Computer Systems and St. Timothy Construction Corporation and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies, Inc. in the joint venture for the Comelec procurement.
It was declared ineligible in the first round of bidding in December 2023 for failure to meet the legal requirements of the lease contract. Comelec SMAC conducted a second round of bidding where Miru submitted new documents.
In January, Miru was deemed eligible to proceed with the bidding process after complying with all the legal and financial requirements for the project