A lawmaker hit the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Wednesday, Dec. 17, for choosing Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) as the lone bidder for the contract to supply direct recording electronics (DRE) machines for the 2016 polls.
?There are still unresolved anomalies with regard to the PCOS machines used in past elections. Instead of awarding another contract to Smartmatic-TIM, Comelec should have blacklisted the joint venture,? Kabataan partylist representative Terry Ridon said.
Comelec has earlier announced through its Bids and Awards Committee that Smartmatic-TIM is the only supplier that passed the first stage of the bidding procedures on eligibility.
?Comelec cannot simply discount the continuing objections of technical experts led by AES Watch on the competency of the machines previously supplied by Smartmatic to ensure the sanctity of the ballot,? Ridon said.
The legislator added that awarding the DRE machines contract to Smartmatic-TIM will ?seriously affect the credibility of the upcoming presidential elections.?
?How can the Filipino people again put its trust on the automated elections if Comelec is again procuring the machines from an anomalous supplier?? he asked.
?Even Comelec knows that Smartmatic-TIM should be blacklisted. The only thing preventing them from doing so is the fact that such move will confirm reports of election rigging in past automated polls,? Ridon said.
