Comelec: Still no bidders for overseas online voting system

The Commission of Elections (Comelec) still has no bidder for the overseas online voting and counting system (OVCS) for the 2025 national and local elections. Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) head, Allen Francis Abaya, disclosed that no company has bought bidding documents for the OVCS as of March 7, 2024. INQUIRER.net Files

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission of Elections (Comelec) still has no bidder for the overseas online voting and counting system (OVCS) for the 2025 national and local elections.

During Thursday’s poll body’s pre-bid conference, Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) head, Allen Francis Abaya, disclosed that no company had bought bidding documents for the OVCS as of March 7.

“As of today, we have no bidders yet,” Abaya told reporters.

Later, he explained to INQUIRER.net on the sidelines of the pre-bid conference that: “We can (only) say that they are interested [to bid] once they have bought the bidding documents,” which means that while eight companies attended March 7’s pre-bid conference, they are not yet committing to any offer for the project worth around P466 million.

Comelec’s bidding for the overseas OVCS hit a snag on February 21 as two bidders, Indra Soluciones Technologias de la Information and We Are IT Philippines Inc., were declared “ineligible.”

READ: Bidders for overseas online voting system ineligible – Comelec 

The second bidding will open on March 21 at 9 a.m., just two weeks after SBAC’s pre-bid conference. March 21 is also the deadline for purchasing bidding documents.

If no firm bought the bidding documents from Comelec, the Abaya said they would have no choice but to declare another failure of bidding.

“If we will have no bidders on March 21, who will submit, then we will be declaring a failure of bidding,” he noted.

READ: Comelec: Holding 2025 elections with Cha-cha plebiscite ‘logical’

“We will be deferring it to the head of the procuring entity as to whether we will conduct another bidding. Or as for the rules, we can proceed with the negotiated procurement,” Abaya further said, explaining SBAC’s next steps in case no company bids for the project.

According to the SBAC chair, the two firms declared “ineligible” during the first bidding may still participate in the second bidding as they would only be barred from participating if they were banned or blacklisted.

He said a representative from Indra Soluciones Technologias de la Information was present during Thursday’s pre-bid conference.