Filipino counterparts turns away from automated poll counts

The commission on elections has announced that the Filipino partner of the consortium that won the bid for the election automation has backed out.

“We may have to go manual,” Comelec Chair Jose Melo announced after a 10-minute conference with oficials of the Total Information Management Corp. (TIM), the local counterpart of the consortium headed by the Smartmatic International, a barbados-based enterprise.

TIM president Jose Mari Antuñez told commisioner Melo that TIM was pulling out of the partnership with Smartmatic, citing “irreconcilable differences” to be the reason.

However, a leak has pointed out that lack of funds and unpreparedness prompted TIM’s withdrawal. The leak further revealed that TIM needed an additional P300 million to meet its P700-million share as a partner.

Alledgedly, if TIM cannot raise the amount, the joint venture cannot push through and they cannot be issued the proper papers by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Smartmatic-TIM consortium won the contract after a month-long bidding process that included seven election companies for the election automation project which cots P11.3-billion.

The consortium laid a bid with the mount of P7.2-billion bid and was awarded the exclusive privilage to lease 82,200 counting machines that would enable the comelec to fastrack poll counting and complete the canvassing of ballots in just to days.