Online voting system: Joint venture seeks Comelec reconsideration for 2025 polls

The joint venture of AMA Group Holdings, Corp., Dasan Network Solutions, Inc., and Kevoting Inc. is eyeing the reconsideration of its bid that was declared "ineligible" by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in its P465 million online voting and counting system for use in overseas voting in the 2025 midterm elections.

The joint venture, speaking through its authorized representative Angel Montes Jr., said it disagreed with the decision of the Comelec’s Special Bid and Awards Committee - Automated Elections System (SBAC-AES) to declare as ineligible its bid. 

The Comelec en banc sided with the SBAC and denied its motion for reconsideration.

The AMA-Dasan-Kevoting joint venture submitted its April 4 motion with the SBAC-AES, but it was denied. To exhaust the administrative side of the issue, the joint venture went up to the Comelec en banc and submitted the second motion for reconsideration, claiming it was “tainted with partiality.”

The Comelec denied the second motion, saying the AMA-Dasan-Kevoting did not pay the required un-refundable “protest fee” of P2.3 million, which represented 5% of the ceiling bid. It did not look into the merits of the case.

 In its two motions, the joint venture argued the SBAC has refused to look into what could be regarded as the ridiculously low bid of P112 million by the SMS Global Technologies and Sequent Technologies Joint Venture. 

Behind its low bid, it said, were deficiencies like the failure of the SMSGT-Sequent joint venture to submit 14001 ISO Certification (Environmental Management System) or its equivalent. Also, the joint venture does not have sufficient credentials to prove their the Internet voting system was successfully used in an electoral exercise, the AMA-Dasan- Kevoting joint venture said.

In its second motion for reconsideration, the AMA-Dasan-Keyvoting joint venture raised the question if the SMSGT-Sequent joint venture has submitted any written certification from an election authority that it was indeed successful in the previous electoral exercise it handled. It mentioned that one of its executives admitted in its post-bid evaluation that the only electoral exercise it did was the referendum in Madrid that involved 1.2 million voters.

It said: “SMSGT-Sequent should not be allowed to participate in the first place for failure to prove that ultimately their a.) internet/online voting system has a proven track record of being successfully implemented in at least one (1) election year here or abroad; and

b.) the proposed internet voting system has been successfully used in a prior electoral exercise.”

Citing its implementing rules and regulations on bidding, the SBAC-AES declared as ineligible the joint venture’s bid after it failed to submit the credentials of the Korean Online Privacy Associations and Webmatch, the third-party certifier in accordance with Comelec March 16, 2024 supplemental bid bulletin.

“It would be a great disservice to the Filipino people if Movant (AMA Group-Dasan- Kevoting joint venture, which submitted a relatively competitive bid) is not declared eligible in this bidding,” the joint venture said.

“The SBAC – AEC AES failed to appreciate Movant’s contention as to the totality of the bidding documents it submitted as compliance with the bidding requirements,” it said.

“Movant in its motion for reconsideration has earlier mentioned to the SBAC-AES for 2025 NLE that the Certificate of General (Technology) Service Performance Record attached should be enough to satisfy the requirement for third-party credentials for purposes of establishing that the system is operating properly, securely, and accurately,” it said.

Since no less than the National Election Commission of Korea, the Korean “counterpart” of Comelec, certified Kevoting’s online election system, it would have been enough to satisfy the requirements of the third-party certifier, the joint venture said. The other third-party certifications were “surplusage,” it said.