‘Groups opposed to PCOS upgrade caused delay in poll bidding’

MANILA, Philippines - Groups opposing the automation of elections caused the delay in public bidding for the voting system for next year’s elections, according to an official of Smartmatic.

In a statement, Smartmatic president for Asia Pacific Cesar Flores said they wanted to refurbish the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines as early as “immediately after the 2013 elections.”

Flores said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was left with no choice but to lease new optical mark reader (OMR) machines because anti-automation groups led a media campaign and kept filing cases in the Supreme Court (SC) against the refurbishment contract. 

Flores was referring to the SC decision declaring the P268-million refurbishment contract entered into by the poll body with Smarmatic-Total Information Management Corp. in January as null and void.

Under the contract, Comelec need not lease 70,977 new machines for the 2016 elections, but only supplement the existing machines with 23,000 new ones.  

“We offered (to repair) the machines. But… the decision-making was delayed. When (Comelec) finally agreed to entertain a partial piece of the maintenance that we were offering, this was brought to the Supreme Court and was voided by the Supreme Court,” he told a recent Bulong Pulungan media forum. 

Due to the tight schedule, Comelec had decided to lease a total of 93,077 new OMR machines from the joint venture of Smartmatic–TIM for some P8.4 billion.

The Comelec assured the public the 81,896 PCOS machines in its warehouse in Laguna could still be used in the 2019 mid-term elections. 

Flores had questioned the motives of anti-automation groups that “incessantly” file cases with the SC against automation suppliers. “Every time a contract for automation is awarded by the Comelec, whether with Smartmatic or with another corporation, they question it before the Comelec,” he said.  

He said the same groups have been filing cases even before Smartmatic came into the picture. 

“The same people who filed cases in 2004 for the Mega Pacific (contract for automation), who filed cases in 2009, in 2012 and now they filed three cases in the Supreme Court. Makes you wonder what they really want,” Flores said. 

Flores said those opposing the voting system for 2016 were the same people who managed to get the PCOS refurbishment contract voided.

“We are in this predicament because unfortunately we can no longer refurbish the machines and Comelec has no other option basically than to lease the (new) machines,” he added.