MANILA, Philippines--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Commission On Elections (COMELEC) of the Philippines signed today a contract for the automation of the 2010 National Elections with Smartmatic, the winning company of this landmark bidding process. The contract to provide voting machines, consolidation platforms and roll-out services, is the largest ever in its class awarded to a private company in the electronic voting industry.

Smartmatic, a world-class leading supplier of electoral solutions and services, won the bid to carry out the 2010 Election project in the Philippines. In what will be one of the largest nationwide automated elections in the world, the contract worth approx. U.S. $150 million states that Smartmatic is to deploy 82,200 SAES1800 voting machines across a sizable proportion of the 7,107 thousand islands comprising the territory of the Philippines, and transmit all results electronically to over 1,700 canvassing and consolidation centers. In addition, it will train and place 45,000 support technicians, and manage all logistics and technical contingencies during the project, with the target of enabling electronic voting to some 50 million voters, including even those living in remote locations and difficult terrains.

The COMELEC held an arduous selection process with seven companies bidding over the contract to automate the 2010 elections. After over four weeks of thorough analysis that included stringent legal, technical and financial evaluations, Smartmatic was declared the winner, as its proposal was the most technically qualified and at the same time the lowest bid while simultaneously meeting all of COMELEC’s criteria, including ballot reading accuracy, end-to-end audit capability, full event monitoring, and the capacity to arrive at final results within timely limits.

Smartmatic based its offer on its state-of-the-art electronic voting technology, which is completely compliant with the high standards set by the COMELEC to tackle the complex elections of 2010. “The [Smartmatic] machines were tested four times and in all those times, the accuracy rating was 100 percent,” said Ferdinand Rafanan, COMELEC’s Special Bids and Awards Committee Chairman.

“Due to the specific conditions of the Philippines, both in terms of geography and the expectations of the Filipino people of having a modern electoral system, the 2010 automated elections will prove to be a landmark project; one we will take on with all of our resources and commitment. The result will be a seamless and reliable election that will become a world reference for others to follow. We are thankful to the COMELEC and the people of the Philippines for the confidence they have deposited in our organization,” said Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic’s CEO.

Smartmatic has successfully deployed its electronic voting technology in multiple electoral processes in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, accurately counting over 150 million votes, always with the provision of an auditable paper trail, and open source-code reviews. Last year, the Smartmatic electoral technology was used in the election in the ARMM region in the Philippines, an event the COMELEC regarded as very satisfactory, and first of its kind in South East Asia.

About Smartmatic

Smartmatic is a multinational company that designs and deploys technological solutions aimed at helping governments fulfill, in the most efficient way, their commitments with their citizens. It is one of the largest cutting-edge technology suppliers, with a wide and proven experience in the United States, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Smartmatic aims to help societies become more efficient and transparent, through technological innovations and it is responsible for several top and advanced innovations available in the market around three business areas: electronic auditable voting systems, intelligent and integrated security platforms, and advanced solutions for people registration and authentication for a wide range of government applications.