Comelec: Next bidding for 2025 automated poll system on Jan. 4

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will open the second round of bidding for the new automated election system (AES) to be used in the 2025 National Local Elections (NLE) on January 4 next year.

Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco announced this after the Comelec Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) declared the lone bidder--the joint venture led by the South Korean firm Miru Systems Co. Ltd., “ineligible,” and forcing the poll body to declare the first failure of bidding.

“Nakapagpost na po kami sa PhilGEPS (Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System) kagabi din ng invitation to bid at makakikita niyo po doon ang ating pre-bid conference the next one is on December 22 at ang bid opening po natin ay January 4,” Laudiangco said in an interview at the Comelec.

The deadline for the submission of bids is on the same day at 9 a.m. and the opening of the second round of bidding will be at 10:30 a.m.

Laudiangco admitted that the failed first round of bidding affected Comelec’s timeline for the 2025 NLE.

“Magkakaroon ng setback ng tatlong linggo dahil January 4 pa lang tayo magka-conduct ng bidding,” he said.

According to Laudiangco, the Comelec originally targets to issue a notice to proceed to the winning bidder supposedly in early January, then delivery of the hardware and other materials by August, and accuracy test, field test, and mock elections by October or November.

Despite this, Laudiangco said the Comelec still has “sufficient leeway to adjust for these eventualities.”

While they declared a failure of bidding on Miru’s offer last Thursday, Laudiangco expressed confidence that there will be firms and entities that will participate in the second round of the bid opening.

Apart from Miru, Laudiangco said that two other firms had already expressed intentions to join the bidding.

“Kaya alam po namin meron at merong sasali sa January,” he said.

Miru is still allowed to participate in the bidding but not Smartmatic Philippines, he said.

Laudiangco said the decision of the Comelec en banc to disqualify Smartmatic from their procurements stands unless there is a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court.

About Miru’s reaction to the declaration of its ineligibility, Laudiangco said the firm did not object to the SBAC’s decision because it saw the deficiencies in its bid.

“Malinaw naman po kasi na nakita nila kung saan sila nagkamali and I think optimistic din po sila na sumali sa next round po,” he said.

“We gave them a chance under the rules na within three days pwede silang mag-file ng kanilang letter request for their reconsideration,” he added.

The Comelec is currently looking for a system provider for the new automated election system dubbed the Fully Automated System with Transparency Audit and Count (FASTrAC).

FASTrAC is an upgraded optical mark reader (OMR) paper-based automated elections system with Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) capabilities.

The system features the Automated Counting Machine (ACM), which is intended to replace the more than 90,000 vote counting machines (VCM) used in the 2016 and 2019 elections.

Under the approved TOR, FASTrAC will have the following features:

-Precinct-based upgraded paper-based AES but with DRE capabilities, which still utilizes a paper ballot.

-Election results shall be sent separately and directly from the ACM to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, dominant majority party, dominant minority party, and citizens arm servers.

-The ballot box shall include a separate box for the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail or voter’s receipts

-Requirement for faster scanning of ballots at a speed of at least 200 mm per second

-Higher resolution of ballot scanning, with a resolution of 300 dots per inch and at least an 8-bit JPEG image

-Larger size of screen display of at least 12 inches diagonal and a minimum screen resolution of at least 1920x1080, with a privacy screen feature

-After closing of polls, printing of Election Returns, and transmission of results, the ACM shall be able to allow transparency in the count of votes in the following manner:

*All ballot images (back and front) are ready to be displayed on the screen one by one and the votes obtained by each candidate are added after the display of each ballot image

*Allow scanning of VVPAT QR code (winning bidder shall provide a QR code scanner) one by one, displaying on the screen and adding the votes obtained by each candidate.—LDF, GMA Integrated News