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Central Government

Poll automation back on in the Philippines

By Robin Hicks | 6 July 2009

The Philippines’ Commission on Elections (Comelec) has announced that the winning bidders in the country’s poll automation project have settled their dispute and will go ahead with computerising next year’s elections.

Comelec chairman Jose Melo told reporters last week that the multinational Smartmatic and Filipino firm Total Information Management (TIM), partners in the consortium, have settled their differences over the disbursement of payment and would submit the required incorporation papers for their joint venture ahead of the P7.2 billion (US$150 million) contract signing set for next week.

Based on initial statements from Comelec, 60 percent of the total contract would be given to TIM and the rest to Smartmatic. On Monday, TIM told Melo that it would withdraw from the project after “irreconcilable differences” with its multinational partner.

“After one week of suspense and apprehension that we may be reverting to the manual system of election, we are now back to automation. We thank Smartmatic, TIM and the people behind those companies, as well as our supporters from Congress,” Melo said.

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