Comelec holds 2nd bidding for online voting system

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will hold on Tuesday the second round of bidding for the P465.8-million Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) that will be used for the first-ever online voting of overseas Filipinos in the 2025 midterm polls.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said last Thursday that a second round of competitive public bidding for the procurement of OVCS was needed after the participating bidders failed to comply with the requirements during the first bidding.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco. Photo from Comelec

The first round of bidding was done on February 22, but Comelec’s Special Bids and Awards Committee declared a “failure of bidding” and the two participating bidders as ineligible for failure to comply with requirements.

Laudiangco, however, said that even though the two bidders were declared ineligible, they could still participate in the second round.

The two bidders were Indra Soluciones Technoligias De La Information, S.L.U. (Indra) and We are I.T. Philippines, Inc.

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Records show that there were originally six bidders, but only Indra and I.T. Philippines submitted their bids.

The other four were SMS Global Technologies Inc., Sequent Tech Inc., Prosoft Global Pte. Ltd. and SMMT-TIM 2016 Inc.

The second bidding will be held at the 3rd Floor Convention Hall of Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros, Manila, at 10:30 a.m.

Laudiangco said the authority of the commission to tap other modes of voting was based on Section 16.11 of Republic Act (RA) 9189 and Sections 23 and 28 of RA 10580.

Under the law, Laudiangco said, Congress has granted the Comelec the authority to pursue alternative modes of voting.

He assured the public that overseas internet voting is safe because it requires only small data, similar to text messages.

Chairman George Erwin Garcia earlier said the first-ever implementation of internet voting for overseas Filipinos would increase voter turnout among Filipinos abroad at less cost to the government.

Records show that Comelec spent more than P400 million for overseas voting in the May 9, 2022 elections, but voter turnout was only 39 percent, which was even much lower than in previous elections.

“Spending P411 million [for overseas voting] but resulting in a dismal 39 percent turnout is not value for money, so to speak. Why are not so many overseas Filipinos voting personally or by mail? Maybe they need another mode,” Garcia said, adding that the 2022 overseas voting turnout was by far the highest since overseas voting was implemented.

At present, overseas voters cast their votes by mail or voting personally at the Philippine Embassy or foreign posts where one is registered.

During the 2022 elections, around P1.7 million registered migrant voters spread across 92 Philippine posts worldwide.

But this early on, Garcia said internet voting would not be allowed in China and Russia, among others, as a matter of policy by the said governments.

The largest concentration of overseas registered voters is in the Middle East and Africa, with 786,997, followed by the Asia-Pacific, with 450,282 voters.

The Latin American countries or the Americas have 306,445 voters, while Europe has 153,491 registered voters.

Like the local absentee voting, overseas voters only vote for president, vice president, 12 senators and one party-list group.

The overseas absentee voting started 30 days before the start of the regular elections but simultaneously closed with the local voting.

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