Concerns raised over lone bidder for 2025 vote counting machines

MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers and experts expressed concern over the Commission on Elections (Comelec) possibly awarding the contract for vote counting machines to a lone bidder for the 2025 midterm elections.

 During a recent hearing of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, lawmakers and resource speakers cited the South Korean firm Miru Systems‘ inviolvement in technological glitches in recent election deployments.

Former Caloocan Representative Edgar Erice, who represented Aksyon Demkoratiko during the hearing, called out Miru for submitting a prototype for Comelec’s evaluation as it violates Republic Act 9369, 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 added.

According to Erice, allowing the use of untested prototypes could put the country’s elections in danger as it can be questioned by anyone.

Meanwhile, the Kontra-Daya group also raised issues regarding Miru, particularly its performance in Argentina, which it found “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.

The Alliance of Networks and National Organizations for Monitoring Elections also reported that 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.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, increased concerns were voiced by reputable institutions—including the Carter Center, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), and the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC)—highlighting that 45.1 percent of polling stations encountered problems with the electronic voting machines provided by Miru, resulting in substantial delays and voter confusion during their December 19, 2023 elections.

“No guaranteed contract”

Meanwhile committee chairman and Mountain Province Rep. Maximo Dalog Jr. clarified that Miru is not yet guaranteed a contract since  the SBAC still has to make its recommendations, subject to the review of the Comelec en banc.

Kabataan Representative Raoul Manuel, for his part, articulated the concerns of civic groups and organizations, stating that these issues are “strong and valid” given Miru’s track record.

“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.