Comelec: Contingency plans in place for 2025 poll machines

MANILA, Philippines — Amid lone bidder Miru Systems’ history of problematic vote counting machines abroad, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) gave assurance that contingency measures are in place to ensure the successful procurement of automated poll machines for the 2025 midterm elections.

“There is a process in procurement that ensures its success or that there is a contingency,” Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said.

Poll watchdog Democracy Watch earlier warned against acquiring the services of Miru Systems for the 2025 automated election system project considering its problematic stints in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to fraud allegations.

The Comelec Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC), Laudiangco said, shall thoroughly check the technical and financial capability of the South Korea-based firm.

He added that the SBAC shall also undertake a post-qualification evaluation to verify the authenticity of all documents submitted by Miru Systems.

The SBAC has already declared as eligible in the P18.8-billion contract Miru Systems’ joint venture with three local firms – Integrated Computer Systems, St. Timothy Construction Corp. and Centerpoint Solutions Technologies Inc. – for the Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count or FASTrAC project.

The Comelec still has one year to procure, customize and test machines to be used for the 2025 midterm elections, Laudiangco said.