Comelec headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. CONSULTANT FILES
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is expected to decide today whether to disqualify Smartmatic from participating in the bidding for the new automated electoral system to be used in the 2025 midterm elections.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said he and the six Comelec commissioners are ready to resolve the petition against Smartmatic, which has been the country’s election technology provider since the switch to automatic elections in 2010.
“This is the last one. We hope that by Wednesday we can announce our decision,” Garcia told reporters on Tuesday.
“We want to promulgate the decision before the submission of all tender documents” from participating contractors, he added.
The deadline for submitting proposals and opening bids for Comelec’s complete automation system with transparency audit and counting contract is November 28.
On October 17, Comelec commissioners held a public hearing on the petition filed last June to disqualify Smartmatic as a possible bidder for the 2025 election automation project.
Former Comelec Commissioner Augusto Lagman, former Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr., retired Colonel Leonardo Odoño and former Philippine Institute of Financial Executives President Franklin Ysaac asked the Comelec that declared Smartmatic ineligible to participate in the bidding citing “serious and serious irregularities in the transmission and reception of electoral results” in last year’s presidential and national elections. INQ
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