The Commission on Elections announced on Wednesday that it has officially disqualified long-time service provider Smartmatic from all procurements.

This was confirmed by Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia, who told reporters in a Viber message: "We disqualified Smartmatic to participate in all Comelec procurements."

The chairman made the announcement after the weekly en banc session of the poll body.

"We have to maintain the integrity of our electoral process. For the country and for the people," Garcia added.

Smartmatic has been the service producer for the Philippines' automated elections since 2010. 

When asked if Smartmatic can still appeal the decision, Garcia said the decision is in the hands of the service provider's lawyers.

"It is hard to say what their remedy should be. It's for their lawyers to decide," Garcia said.

The Comelec chief added that the Commission's decision was immediately executory.

"Our decision s immediately executory unless restrained," he added.

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 15 June.

According to their allegations, 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."