Comelec assures fair Smartmatic decision

Commission on Elections chairman George Erwin Garcia yesterday said he had decided on the petition seeking to disqualify Smartmatic Corporation from bidding for the automated election system in the upcoming 2025 midterm election.

Garcia said he reviewed all matters under the law before making his decision. He declined to reveal his decision, saying he did not want to influence the other members of the Commission.

"I have my decision already, I have already studied the matter, I already studied the circumstances, the law applicable, so I express this to them as far as the chair is concerned," Garcia said.

The chairman pledged to the public that regardless of the Commission's decision, it would be for the betterment of the country.

The petition cited Smartmatic's alleged failure to comply with minimum system capabilities during the holding of the 2022 elections, resulting in "serious and grave irregularities in the transmission" of votes.

The disqualification of Smartmatic was sought by former Department of Information and Communications Technology chief Eliseo Mijares Rio Jr., Augusto Cadelina Lagman, Franklin Faygola Ysaac and Leonardo Olivera Odono.

Smartmatic said the arguments against it were "not only false but are mere baseless speculations with a singular goal of maligning our company."

"We confidently stand by the demonstrable 100 percent accuracy of the results of the 2022 elections in the same way that we remain very confident in the untarnished reliability and integrity of our products and solutions," Smartmatic said in a statement.