The Commission on Elections said yesterday that they will study President Duterte’s call to dispose of the vote counting machines of Smartmatic and look for a new provider that is free of fraud.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said Smartmatic has no hold on the poll body but there is a chance that the country can have a new VCM provider.
“It is clear to us that Smartmatic has no hold on the Comelec except for the fact that they always win the bidding,” he said. “There is always that chance that we can have a different provider because we undergo public bidding. So there is always a chance for that,” added Jimenez.
Jimenez said the poll body cannot ban Smartmatic from future biddings. “What we will need is a legal basis to ban any supplier. We will have to look into that.”
Jimenez also said that they still need to discuss the statement of the President in Japan Thursday.
“We have a lot of aspects from the statement of the President that needs to be studied. So, definitely, over the next few days, this will really be a major discussion in the Commission,” he said.
The poll official admitted that they were caught off guard by Duterte’s remarks.
“It was not expected that he will be that specific. Because whenever the President talks to the Filipino community overseas, he always speaks about elections in general,” said Jimenez. (Leslie Aquino)
