Duterte wants to get rid of Smartmatic
President Rodrigo Duterte wants the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to dispose Smartmatic, the private company which supplied the technology for the automated elections for the past years, including the recent midterm polls.
"Dispose of that Smartmatic and look for a new one which is free of fraud,” Duterte said in a speech before the Filipino community in Japan.
He noted that the opposition Liberal Party has complained that its candidates in the May 13 polls were cheated, while those from the administration also claimed the same.
"It's creating an environment of hostile attitude," he said.
Duterte urged the Comelec to improve the system and to stop using Smartmatic.
He vowed that in his State of the Nation Address, he would make a call to the poll body to stop using the Smartmatic because it has been creating a problem.
During the recent elections, a seven-hour glitch occurred in the Comelec's transparency server.
The public failed to immediately see the results of the partial unofficial count of the votes for the senatorial polls, prompting some quarters, particularly the LP's Otso Diretso senatorial candidates, to raise the possibility of massive cheating that took place during the seven-hour period.
No one from the Otso Diretso senatorial bets won in the midterm polls.
Most of those who were proclaimed winners were the administration-backed senatorial candidates. Celerina Monte/DMS
