MANILA, Philippines – Two election watchdogs, backing a former poll commissioner, have expressed concern that there would be a “sham bidding” for the lease of additional voting machines for the 2016 national and local elections.

Ex-commissioner Augusto “Gus” Lagman, who belongs to the group Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch), the “insistence” of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to include Smartmatic-TIM in the bidding process for the new machines, despite unresolved issues in past elections.

He also mentioned a possible “negotiated contract” between Comelec and Smartmatic for the refurbishment of existing precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines that would be reused in 2016.

Smartmatic supplied these units to Comelec for the 2010 and 2013 polls. (READ: Persistent issues cast doubt on PCOS reliability)

“[Smartmatic-TIM] has committed many violations in the past. Why does Comelec keep on entertaining them? If it violated their rules and the laws of the country, why let them join the bidding? It doesn’t make sense,” Lagman said in a statement on Tuesday, November 11.

“[A sham bidding] can happen. That can very well happen,” he added.

Lagman had vowed to go to court to prevent Smartmatic-TIM from participating in the bidding process.

Smartmatic’s sins

In response, Comelec have assurances that there will be transparency throughout the bidding process.

The Comelec on November 4 held a pre-bid conference on the two-stage competitive bidding for the lease of 23,000 units of optical mark reader (OMR) voting machines and 410 direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines to augment the existing PCOS machines for the 2016 polls. 

Five prospective bidders which had purchased bidding documents were present at the conference, including Smartmatic-TIM.

A newly-formed group, the Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E), echoed Lagman’s sentiment. In a media briefing on Friday, November 7, the C3E listed down Smartmatic’s violations such as:

• Smartmatic-TIM not being a ISO 9001-certified company and circumventing the “60-40” local-to-foreign ownership requirement
• the PCOS software and source code not being owned by Smartmatic
• the absence of digital signatures in electronically-transmitted results

“There is a great possibility of a large-scale electronic manipulation of the 2016 elections if Smartmatic remains to be the supplier of automated election systems,” said engineer and IT expert Hermenegildo Estrella of C3E.

Comelec vows transparency

In a phone interview with Rappler, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said that the poll body would be transparent throughout the bidding process for the lease of additional voting machines.

“We at Comelec would like to assure the people that this ‘sham bidding’ would not take place,” Jimenez said.

He noted that Comelec’s pre-bid conference last November 4 was covered by the media. The end-to-end testing of bidders’ technical proposals would be open to the public as well, he said.

As for the plea to ban Smartmatic from the bidding process due to past issues, Jimenez said there is no reason for Comelec to blacklist any interested party.

He also clarified that Smartmatic-TIM has yet to submit eligibility requirements and an initial technical proposal. The Comelec would evaluate the qualification of all interested parties and the merits of their submitted proposals starting December 4.

“They keep forgetting the fact that the Supreme Court tackled all their concerns squarely and fairly, and ruled against them,” Jimenez said. (READ: SC: Comelec’s purchase of PCOS machines valid)

In addition, Jimenez said that the reported “negotiated contract” for the refurbishment of PCOS machines is among the possibilities the poll body is considering. But he cautioned against jumping into conclusions.

“The Comelec en banc is still discussing their options. Let’s wait for their decision, instead of spreading fear based on speculations,” he said. – Rappler.com