South Korean firm's automation poll contract bid questioned in House hearing 

House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Congressmen past and present has warned the Commission on Elections (Comelec) of possible problems if it pushes through with awarding a critical election automation contract for the 2025 elections to South Korea's Miru Systems. 

A recent hearing of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms scrutinized Miru Systems' bid for the automation contract. The company was the sole bidder. 

Makabayan solon Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel cited the concerns of civic groups and organizations over Miru’s track record. He described these concerns as "strong and valid". 

Reports said that Miru's recent election deployments have been marked by technological glitches. The company itself has reportedly been hit by corruption scandals. 

“There really is a reason for worry. We hope Comelec commits to incorporating all the comments from the resource persons in its decision regarding the post-qualification process. The stakes are high. We cannot downplay these worries,” Manuel said. 

Earlier in the hearing, resource person and former Caloocan 2nd district Rep. Edgar Erice criticized the lone bidder for submitting a prototype for Comelec’s evaluation. He says that such an act violates Republic Act (RA) No.9369, or the Election Automation Law of 2007. 

“This machine is a prototype. It has never been used in any elections. In Congo, they used a DRE machine. In Iraq and in Korea, they used an Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machine. And this combination of OMR and DRE machines has never been tested in any elections,” Erice said. 

“We will be a Guinea Pig of this particular kind of machine, and Republic Act 9369 prohibits this. We cannot use prototype machines in automated elections,” he pointed out. 

Erice, representing political party Aksyon Demokratiko, warned the House panel that if Comelec allows the use of the untested prototype, it can be questioned by anyone and lead to potential legal challenges and jeopardizing the elections. 

“It will put our elections in grave danger,” he said. 

Another resource person from the watchdog Kontra-Daya also raised issues about Miru’s performance in Argentina, which it finds “very concerning". 

“Some NGOs and cybersecurity professionals found vulnerabilities in the Miru machines that made them susceptible to manipulation. They found numerous entry points that bad actors could exploit to manipulate the vote count,” Kontra-Daya said. 

Mountain Province lone district Rep. Maximo Jr. Dalog, chaiman of the suffrage panel, clarified that Miru was not yet guaranteed to get the contract as the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) still has to make its recommendations, subject to the review of the Comelec en banc. 

It might be recalled that election watchdog Democracy Watch had earlier warned Comelec of Miru’s track record of failures in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

According to the Alliance of Networks and National Organizations for Monitoring Elections, a staggering 70 percent of the voting stations in Iraq faced issues with Miru's devices during the first round of voting, leading to a manual vote count.