The submission of the bid documents for a new automated election system in the 2025 midterm polls has been moved from November 28 to December 12, Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson George Garcia announced Wednesday.
At a press conference, Garcia said the Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) has decided to reset the bidding deadline to give all possible suppliers more time to prepare their documents that will be submitted to the poll body.
“Para naman hindi sabihin na napakaiksi ng panahon and therefore para naka-limit lang sa kung kanino. Ginawa nating December 12 para lahat na makakapag-submit sa Commission on Elections,” he said.
(We did this so that potential suppliers would not say that the time for preparation is very short and is only limited to a particular supplier. We made December 12 a deadline so that everyone can submit to the Commission on Elections.)
Garcia said the postponement of the bidding deadline would also allow Comelec to resolve first the case seeking to disqualify technology provider Smartmatic from bidding in 2025 automated elections.
“At the same time, para magkaron muna hopefully ang Comelec ng resolution doon sa controversy surrounding a particular supplier para matapos na ang issue na ‘yan and maging dire-diretso ang ating procurement process. This is the commitment of the Comelec to resolve once and for all that particular issue,” he added.
(This will hopefully allow Comelec to come up with a resolution to the controversy surrounding a particular supplier so that the issue can be over and our procurement process can be done without any hindrance.)
The poll chairman also said that the bid documents cost around P75,000.
Last Friday, the Comelec announced that at least five companies are expected to submit their bids for the P18 billion vote counting machine contract.
Garcia said earlier that the procurement will include the hardware, software, transmission and internevoting for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). — RSJ, GMA Integrated News
