On February 22, 2024, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) awarded the joint venture led by South Korean firm Miru Systems with the bundled poll contract worth P17.9 billion. Miru will provide Comelec the following for the 2025 elections:

• 110,000 new automated counting machines
• 104,345 ballot boxes
• 2,200 consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) laptops and printers
• Ballot paper for 73.8 million voters
• Ballot printing and ballot verification services

This means that Miru, the lone bidder and eventual winner, replaces Smartmatic as Comelec’s automated election system provider. Smartmatic had been Comelec’s provider in the 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2022 polls, and generation of Filipinos by now have associated its machines with automated elections.

For us working in the field of elections, the award signals a bold walk in a different direction, a new and admittedly unknown path. As with all Comelec leadership positions, legacies are often tied with the success of the elections they lead. In the context of automated elections, success is connected to the voting machines and system that are being used. 

Despite the obvious PR campaign to sully Smartmatic’s reputation after the 2022 elections, I think it is but fair that we put on record that that its machines had performed exceptionally well. I think all of us who has handled election contests and court-sanctioned recounts before Comelec can attest that no complaint against it has ever survived court scrutiny, and none of its count has ever been proven wrong. In other words, Smartmatic set a high standard for how automated elections should be done. This will be the standard by which Miru’s technology and success will be gauged.

I understand the concern of some sectors that using Smartmatic for five consecutive elections is tantamount to a monopoly. But this is unfair to Comelec, given that each election contract had been won in an open, competitive, and even court-litigated public bidding. So I think what should cause us concern now is whether Comelec’s move to award Miru with the poll contract, after disqualifying Smartmatic, is a step towards the right direction. Or will it be a classic case of Comelec jumping out of the frying pan and into the roaring fire?

Let’s first talk about the elephant in the room. While integrity issues have been thrown at Smartmatic, it only takes a simple Google search to show that Miru has been plagued with even more controversies and election scandals in its engagements as well. There is also the fact that Miru has never handled anything as big and as complicated as the Philippine elections.

On this account, Comelec will need to carefully oversee and secure the electoral exercise to make sure none of those past failures by Miru would happen here (and I have a full trust that they will). This is, after all, the downside of every open and competitive public bidding – you really cannot choose who your bidders will be and who will win.

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The second critical point to consider is the pending suit by Smartmatic before the Supreme Court, assailing its disqualification from the 2025 public bidding. While the Supreme Court has not issued a temporary restraining order or status quo ante, the fact that the petition is pending and unresolved means there is the possibility of Smartmatic re-entering the scene. That re-entry remains to be a moving part in Comelec’s preparation for the 2025 polls.

Should Smartmatic win its case, the Comelec will be compelled to reopen the process and allow Smartmatic to re-enter the bid. This is why it is of utmost importance for the Supreme Court to decide the case as soon as possible – whether it is to sustain Smartmatic’s disqualification or not. This will be but fair to all parties, especially to Comelec, given that 2025 is fast approaching.

In the worst case scenario where Comelec loses the case and will be forced to restart its bidding process, the practical question is whether it still has time to restart the bidding anew? By now, we have 15 months to go before the 2025 elections, and historically that is still a lot of time to redo the bidding process. For the 2010 polls, Comelec did the preparations in 10 months; for the 2016 polls, it did so in seven months. So time should not be a problem, at least at this point and in the months to follow.

Also, should Smartmatic re-enter the scene, I personally would like to see it battle it out with Miru – not only with the price, but in terms of experience and technological capabilities. An open competition like this always favors the people, making sure that they reap the best technological deal at the best price. 

Alternatively, should Smartmatic lose its case, then at least the Comelec can move forward with its preparations for the 2025 elections, with no more worries about undoing the preliminary work it has already done.

But regardless of how the case is resolved, I pray that the Supreme Court decides for the ultimate benefit of the country. – Rappler.com

Emil Marañon III is an election lawyer specializing in automated election litigation and consulting. Marañon served in Comelec as chief of staff of the late chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. He graduated from the SOAS, University of London, where he studied Human Rights, Conflict, and Justice as a Chevening scholar. He is a partner at Trojillo Ansaldo and Marañon (TAM) Law Offices.