Election watchdog ‘Democracy Watch’, which had earlier warned Comelec of Miru System’s disastrous performance in the recent Iran and Congo elections, had rejected what they described as the firm’s ‘blanket denials’.
According to a statement issued by Democracy Watch “facts and evidence must be the sole qualifier in this process and not simply statements in response by the proponents.” Miru Systems Co. Ltd. from South Korea is the lone bidder in the ongoing procurement process.
Citing a report by the Carter Center, an international election observation mission that deployed long-term observers across Congo, the election watchdog said that the center confirmed the technical failures, stating that “… the quality of the voter register has been questioned by numerous interlocutors, who have cited concerns about the quality and transparency of the process.”
“The Center also stated that observers in around 22% of polling stations witnessed technical problems and prolonged periods of machine inoperability which led to the closure of some polling stations. This has led to the Congo election commission extending voting for another day,” the report said.
The elecdtion watchdog further presented statements coming from Congo’s own watchdog groups, the Election Observation Mission of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) and the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC) which said that “preliminary election report gathered from 60,000 nationwide volunteers mentioned that 45.1% of the polling stations experienced problems with their electronic voting machines.”
“Breakdowns and technical errors were rampant, thereby delaying voting and creating confusion among voters,” the Congolese groups said.
The Democracy Watch also took exception to Miru’s statement that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) had declared the elections as “fair and successful.”
The poll watchdog said that it needs to be confirmed because of its “inconsistency with the published statement of UNAMI that “it will not observe or…
