Smartmatic disqualified from Comelec procurements —Garcia

Comelec Chairman George Garcia at PARTICIPATE PH forum on Nov. 22, 2023. Photo: Sherylin Untalan

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has disqualified service provider Smartmatic from all procurements, Comelec Chairman George Garcia announced Wednesday.

“We disqualified Smartmatic to participate in all Comelec procurement,” Garcia told reporters in a Viber message.

The Comelec chief announced this after the weekly en banc session of the poll body.

The petition against Smartmatic was filed by former Department of Information and Communications Technology chief Eliseo Mijares Rio Jr., Augusto Cadelina Lagman, Franklin Fayloga Ysaac, and Leonardo Olivera Odono on June 15.

They claim that Smartmatic “failed to comply with certain minimum system capabilities that resulted in serious and grave irregularities in the transmission and receipt of election return” during the 2022 polls.

‘Profound disappointment’

Smartmatic, for its part, expressed “profound disappointment” with the development although it said it has neither been notified nor receive a copy of the Comelec decision.

In a statement, the firm pointed out that it has never been indicted in any country, including the United States, in connection with any election-related contract in its 23-year history.

“We urge Comelec officials to conduct this research independently, and to show to the public any indictment against Smartmatic. We are confident there is no such indictment in the United States,” it said.

In a statement over the weekend, Smartmatic reiterated its call to the Comelec to dismiss the disqualification petition against them in the bidding process for the 2025 automated election.

The firm maintained that the accusations against them are “unfounded” and that the petitioners “lacked evidence.”

“The petitioners’ clear objective is both political, attempting to delegitimize the government, and commercial, supporting Smartmatic competitors. These claims are unfounded, presented as facts but lacking any evidence,” Smartmatic said. —KBK, GMA Integrated News

This article Smartmatic disqualified from Comelec procurements —Garcia was originally published in GMA News Online.