The contract, costing P525,091,672.46, was awarded to Smartmatic Sahi Joint Venture that successfully complied with the eligibility requirements set out in the Request for Proposal of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and submitted a bid price below the Comelec’s approved budget for the contract.

Smartmatic’s bid was for an electronic voting system using Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) technology that allows voting through a touch-screen or touch-pad.

Comelec Chairman Jose A. R. Melo and Commissioners Nicodemo T. Ferrer and Moslemen T. Macarambon Sr. as well as Bob Cook, Smartmatic president and other officers of the joint venture were present during the contract signing held at the Comelec Session Hall at the 8th Floor of Palacio del Gobernador, Intramuros, Manila..

After the contract system, Smartmatic demonstrated how DRE technology works during the elections. Smartmatic spokesman Cesar Flores said the results of the Aug. 11 polls in Maguindanao will be known at the end of election day.

Flores said all of the election precincts in Maguindanao will be provided with machines needed for poll automation. He said in case a machine bugs down, it will be immediately replaced. A contingency will operate automatically in case power failure in Maguindanao.

The contract covers only Maguindanao, one of the six provinces of ARMM. The automation of Aug. 11 elections in the other five provinces of the ARMM - Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi - will be covered by other contracts, Comelec said.

Maguindanao, as of the May 14, 2007 elections, had a total of 337,044 registered voters. It has a total of 2,600 established precincts which were clustered to 1,680 precincts due to the shortage of public school teachers to serve as members of the boards of election inspectors.

The P525 million contract for Maguindanao is part of the P867,329,200 earlier released by the Department of Budget and Management for the automation of ARMM elections.