The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will tackle Monday the salient legal issues involved in the contract it hopes to sign this week with the consortium of Smartmatic International and Total Information Management (TIM) that offered the “Lowest Calculated Responsive Bids (LCRB)” of P7.19 billion for the full automation of the May 10, 2010 polls, more than P4 billion lower than the approved budget of P11.2 billion for the project.

The contract, by way of a lease for the hardware and software with option to purchase, covers the procurement of counting machines, including the supply of ballot paper, electronic transmission services using public telecommunications networks, training, technical support, warehousing, deployment, installation, pull-out, systems integration and overall project management in the automation, counting, transmission and canvassing of votes.

The Comelec, led by Chairman Jose A.R. Melo, normally holds its regular en banc executive session every Tuesday but he is expected to be around along with Commissioners Rene V. Sarmiento, Lucenito N. Tagle and Armando C. Velasco to deliberate on the draft of the contract submitted to it by the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) to keep on target the preparations for next year’s major political exercise.

The SBAC was earlier ordered by the Comelec en banc under Resolution No. 8608 to award to the joint venture of Smartmatic and TIM the contract for the automation of 2010 polls.

But Commissioner Nicodemo T. Ferrer, who earlier voted for the awarding of the contract to Smartmatic, will not be able to participate in Comelec deliberation as he is still in New York to convince overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to register and vote in 2010 elections as overseas absentee voters.

Neither could Commissioners Leonardo L. Leonida and Elias R. Yusoph could participate in the deliberation of the Comelec en banc since they are not yet reappointed by President Arroyo after their appointments lapsed when Congress adjourned with the Commission on Appointments unable to act on their bid for confirmation.