The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to conduct a second bidding for the lease of Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC) for the 2025 midterm elections.

In an advisory, the poll body’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) invited prospective bidders to submit bid documents in time for Monday’s bidding at 10:30 a.m., which will be held at the Convention Hall, Bureau of the Treasury (BTR) on the 3rd Floor of the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros, Manila.

Aside from private companies, the commission is also expecting observers from the Commission on Audit (COA) Resident Auditor, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), Democracy Watch, and Participate PH to attend the bidding.

“Members of the media are invited to cover livestream will be available on the Official Comelec Facebook page (facebook.com/comelec.ph) and YouTube Channel (youtube.com/COMELEC),” it added.

Meanwhile, an election watchdog urged the Comelec to thoroughly check the background of one of its bidders for the multi-billion project.

Democracy Watch said the poll body must scrutinize the South Korean firm Miru Systems Co. Ltd. after claims that it was involved in alleged poll issues.

“We urge the Comelec to give Miru’s track record a thorough once-over as part of its due diligence, as it should with all suppliers. It might want to investigate the company’s alleged links to controversies in Congo and Argentina. Such concerns over hacking vulnerabilities and vote manipulation are so grave as to have prompted watchdog groups and independent experts to flag many fatal weaknesses in Miru’s technology publicly,” it said in a statement.

“We trust that the Comelec will raise these issues in the interest of ensuring the integrity of the 2025 elections. We cannot have counting machines failing at such a massive scale, as this would cause political instability in the country.”

Based on the latest available data showing Miru’s performance in six nations where it facilitated automated elections failed in at least three countries mainly due to issues with voting machines.

Democracy Watch, an official observer to the Comelec’s ongoing procurement process for next year’s polls, issued the statement after the first round of bidding for the PHP18.83 billion contract failed.

Only Miru participated during the first bidding. (PNA)

Photo credit: Facebook/comelec.ph