House Hearing Reveals Miru Machine as Untested Prototype Unfit for Use in the Philippines

A recent hearing of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms raised serious questions about the ongoing bidding process after a resource speaker claimed that Miru Systems had submitted a prototype machine for the post-qualification process, explicitly forbidden by Philippine laws.

Former Caloocan Representative Edgar Erice criticized Miru for presenting a prototype for Comelec’s evaluation, stating that it violates the law.

“This machine is a prototype. It has never been used in any elections. In Congo, they used a DRE machine. In Iraq and in Korea, they used an Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machine. And this combination of OMR and DRE machines has never been tested in any elections,” Erice said.

“We will be a Guinea Pig for this particular kind of machine,” he added, highlighting that “Republic Act 9369 prohibits this. We cannot use prototype machines in automated elections.”

Republic Act 9369, or the Election Automation Law of 2007, explicitly requires that “the system procured must have demonstrated capability and been successfully used in a prior electoral exercise here or abroad.”

A representative from Miru confirmed that the ACM submitted for the post-qualification evaluation was indeed custom-manufactured to meet Comelec’s requirements, acknowledging this model has not been used before. However, he highlighted that the ACM employed technologies that have previously been utilized successfully in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In December of last year, election watchdog Democracy Watch had warned Comelec of Miru’s track record of failures in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). After the December 19, 2023 elections in the DRC, increased concerns were voiced by reputable institutions—including the Carter Center, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), and the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC). These institutions highlighted that 45.1% of polling stations encountered problems with the electronic voting machines provided by Miru, resulting in substantial delays and voter confusion. In Iraq, a staggering 70% of the voting stations faced issues with Miru’s devices during the first round of voting, leading to a manual vote count. This information is according to the Alliance of Networks and National Organizations for Monitoring Elections.

Erice, now the regional chair of the political party Aksyon Demokratiko, warned that if Comelec allows the use of the untested prototype, then it can be subject to a legal suit which could result in the Court ruling against it and consequently jeopardizing the elections.

Kabataan Representative Raoul Manuel stated that civic groups and organizations have “strong and valid concerns” over Miru’s track record.

“There really is a reason for worry. We hope Comelec commits to incorporating all the comments from the resource persons in its decision regarding the post-qualification process. The stakes are high. We cannot downplay these worries,” Manuel added.

A resource person from the watchdog Kontra-Daya also raised issues about Miru’s performance in Argentina, which it finds “very concerning.”

“Some NGOs and cybersecurity professionals found vulnerabilities in the Miru machines that made them susceptible to manipulation. They found numerous entry points that bad actors could exploit to manipulate the vote count,” Kontra-Daya said.

Representative Maximo Jr. Y. Dalog of the Lone District of Mountain Province, who chairs the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, clarified that Miru is not yet guaranteed to get the contract as the SBAC still has to make its recommendations, subject to the review of the Comelec en banc.