THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has awarded to the joint venture led by Miru Systems of South Korea the P17.9-billion leasing contract for 110,000 automated counting machines (ACMs) that will be used in the 2025 elections.

The Comelec en banc awarded the contract to Miru, the lone bidder, through a unanimous vote last Wednesday.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco. Photo from Comelec

The contract also requires the Miru group to provide 104,345 ballot boxes, 2,200 laptops and printers, the paper for printing 73,881,894 ballots, and a system for ballot verification.

The award came after Miru demonstrated its ACM, consolidation and canvassing system (CCS) and election management system (EMS) before members of the Comelec en banc, citizens' arms representatives, stakeholders and other observers.

A Notice of Award was issued to Miru Systems for the project, and the lease of Full Automation System with Transparency Audit/Count (FASTrAC).

The contract covers EMS goods and services, ACM goods and services, CCS goods and services, ballot printing services and goods, and ballot box-goods and services.

First unveiled on May 4, 2023, FASTrAC is an upgraded optical mark reader (OMR) paper-based automated elections system with Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) capabilities.

It features the ACM, which will replace the more than 90,000 outmoded vote-counting machines (VCMs) that Comelec deployed during the 2016, 2019 and 2022 elections.

FASTrAC uses a precinct-based upgraded paper-based system with DRE capabilities, allowing election results to be sent directly from the ACM to the dominant majority party, dominant minority party and citizens arms.

Each ballot will be scanned at the speed of at least 200 millimeter per second. The scanner will have a resolution of 300 dots per inch (DPI) and at least 8-bit JPEG image.

The ACM will have a larger screen display of at least 132 inches diagonal.

The ACM enables each ballot to be displayed onscreen, and the total votes of each candidate automatically tallied.

In a related development, the Comelec has declared a failure of bidding for its P465.8-million Online Voting and Counting System (OVCS) for overseas Filipinos in 2025.

"It's a failed bidding," said Chairman George Erwin Garcia on Thursday after the Comelec Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) ruled that the two bidders, Indra Soluciones Technoligias De La Information, S.L.U. (Indra), and We are I.T. Philippines, Inc., were ineligible.

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said none of the two complied with the bidding requirements.

The bidders could still participate in the second round of bidding, Laudiancgo said.