The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is now selling its over 80,000 units of old Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS), which were last used in the 2013 elections. In a notice, the Comelec Disposal Committee (CDC) it would auction off the 81,755 PCOS units for over P187 million or P2,293.75 per…
Comelec issues Notice to Proceed to Smartmatic for VCM refurbishment mb.com.ph - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mb.com.ph Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
(COMELEC)
Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said that they “did not choose Smartmatic” to provide the automated system for the 2022 National and Local elections.
“They joined the competitive bidding. It’s beyond our control kung sino mananalo (who will win). It will be the lowest calculated bid,” said Casquejo.
Casquejo said that policies on public bidding were followed.
“We conducted a post qualification, and may observers naman tayo (and there were observers). We just followed what the GPBB (Government Procurement Policy Board) will give us,” he said.
The Comelec has awarded to Smartmatic “the contract for the Procurement of Automated Election System (AES) Software for the Election Management System (EMS), Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) and Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS) to be used in the 2022 National and Local Elections.”
This comes despite calls of groups and personalities, including President Rodrigo Duterte himself, to replace Smartmatic due to allegations of election fraud
Comelec/MB
“On behalf of the Commission en banc, the undersigned hereby awards to joint venture of SMMT-TIM 2016, Inc. and Smartmatic USA Corp the contract for the procurement of AES Software for the EMS, VCMs, and CCS to be used in the 2022 National and Local Elections,” the Notice of Award issued by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) read.
The EMS sets up the automation of the polls and manages election-related data, and prepares the ballot templates for each town and city nationwide.
The VCM are the actual voting machines while the CCS is the one that reads incoming voting data, consolidates them, and canvasses the votes.