FAST FACTS: Miru Systems, the lone bidder for the costliest 2025 election contract
Miru Systems is a Korean firm that seeks to be the Philippines' top poll tech supplier in 2025. It claims to 'provide the best electronic system,' although its technology has faced criticisms abroad.
MANILA, Philippines – As the Commission on Elections (Comelec) opened the bidding for the multi-billion-peso contract that would reshape the conduct of the 2025 automated elections, only one company submitted a bid that was accepted by the poll body on Thursday, December 14.
That firm is named Miru Systems, an election tech provider based in South Korea that was established in 1997, based on its website.
It claims to “provide the best electronic voting system that is user-friendly, secure, transparent, and accurate,” although it has a rocky history overseas.
Miru showed interest in Philippine elections in the past.
This is not the first time Miru attempted to become an election software provider in the Philippines.
In 2015, Miru bought bidding documents for the Comelec’s lease of new vote-counting machines, but it ended up not submitting a proposal due to time constraints in completing its documents.
In March this year, it participated in the national Comelec summit to present its election technology, and in July, the company was among eight tech providers that pitched its online voting software for overseas Filipinos.
For its bid, Miru is partnering with local firms.
Miru submitted a bid proposal for the Comelec’s full automation system with transparency audit count (FASTrAC) project worth P18.827 billion. The contract up for grabs includes 110,000 automated counting machines, 104,345 ballot boxes, 73.8 million ballot papers, and the canvassing system.
Comelec spokesman Rex Laudiangco said Miru has entered into a joint venture with three local firms, namely:
- Integrated Computer Systems
- St. Timothy Construction Corporation
- Centerpoint Solutions Technologies Inc.
Miru has faced election issues abroad.
Miru has provided election systems in numerous countries.
In South Korea, its home country, Miru developed a touch-screen system, voter identification, and voter verification system which has been used by the Korea National Election Commission for party primaries, union elections, university elections and consignment elections.
Miru has also deployed machines to Democratic Republic of Congo, Kyrgyzstan and Iraq, “countries that can be considered struggling democracies,” as described by Korea Herald.
The Sentry, an anti-corruption watchdog focused on African issues, published a 2018 report on Miru, raising some concerns and allegations:
- That, as per independent researchers, the machines Miru tried to sell in Congo were repackaged equipment originally intended for Argentina, where similar machines faced pushback, and where the e-voting law ultimately failed to pass;
- That the company’s technology was prone to hacking and threats to ballot secrecy, according to Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology chief technologist Joseph Lorenzo Hall.
Miru, however, fired back at that report, and an executive was quoted by The Washington Post as saying “security concerns raised are not real as the author of the paper seems to have taken facts only from pictures seen and published.”
The South Korean government distanced itself from Miru Systems when the issue on the “cheating machines” during Congo’s election emerged.
The government of Congo used Miru’s technology for the 2018 presidential, legislative, and provincial elections, as well as the senatorial and gubernatorial election the following year.
A 2018 Reuters report also said that in Iraq, Miru’s machines were “at the heart of fraud allegations that led to a manual recount in some areas after the May 12 election.”
“Concerns about the election count center on discrepancies in the tallying of votes by the voting machines… and suggestions that the devices could have been tampered with or hacked into to skew the result,” the report read, although Miru brushed aside the hacking allegations.
Miru winning the whopping contract is not yet a done deal.
While Miru has no competition as of the moment, it doesn’t mean it is guaranteed to win the multi-billion-peso contract.
Its submitted documents are under review to ensure that the company is capable of delivering contract requirements. If Miru fails to pass any part of the process, a failed bidding would be declared, giving other firms the chance to get back in the game.
Originally, three firms purchased bidding documents in November – Miru, Pivot International, and Smartmatic.
Smartmatic tried to submit a bidding proposal on Thursday, but the Comelec rejected it due to the commission’s disqualification order against the company, which stemmed from its alleged involvement in a 2016 bribery scheme. The firm is contesting the commission’s decision.
Pivot International, meanwhile, eventually opted not to tender a bid. – with reports from Juliana Talde/Rappler.com
Juliana Talde is a news reporter for Archers Network, the premiere online television network of De La Salle University Manila. She is also currently an intern for Rappler.