Now that the Commission on Elections has awarded a contract worth almost P18 billion to lease an automated election system for the 2025 midterm polls to a joint venture led by the controversial South Korean company Miru Systems Co. Ltd., the question is whether this new system will be beyond reproach.
The AES supplied by Smartmatic for use starting in the 2010 presidential polls came under heavy fire from various directions for questions about its capability to deliver accurate results. The questions did not stop even until the 2022 presidential contest.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the poll body unanimously approved the recommendation of the special bids and awards committee to award the contract of the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count for next year’s national and local polls.
He gave assurances the contract would be “subject to the highest standard of transparency and applicable auditing rules.”
The joint venture includes three local companies—Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corp., and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies Inc.
It offered a bid of P17.99 billion, below the P18.82-billion approved budget for the Fastrac project, saving the government around P839 million.
The contract will provide 110,000 automated counting machines, election management systems, consolidation and canvassing systems, ballot printing, ballot boxes and other peripherals.
The new machines would replace the 97,000 vote counting machines procured from London-based Smartmatic Corp., which were used in the previous three elections.
Reports indicate the counting machines will be equipped both with optical mark reader, the technology used in the past elections that reads the shaded ballots, as well as direct electronic recording using touchscreens for Filipino voters in countries where internet-based overseas voting would not be possible.
The Comelec will supervise the customization of the automated counting machines.
That is, ensure the machines shown to the agency during the demonstration will be of the same quality and all the specifications listed in the TOR will be present, even if the machines are to be mass-produced.
The Comelec has said it is aware of allegations of malfunctioning electoral systems and irregularities involving the Miru system in past elections in other countries.
Then there were also reports certain individuals were claiming they could manipulate the upcoming polls with help from accomplices in the Comelec’s information technology department and in the joint venture.
The poll chief, however, said these were false and assured voters no one could manipulate the election results.
Can we trust the new AES system? That we’ll have to wait and see.