On Friday, July 22, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) came under the limelight after news broke that police had detained three Venezuelans holding election-related materials.
The National Police Service (NPS) released a statement stating that the three had to be detained and questioned after being discovered to be carrying IEBC stickers by security personnel stationed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
Even as concerns arose over why the IEBC would hire foreign nationals from a contracted firm to transport election materials as part of their luggage, NPS highlighted that the electoral commission had not issued a notice on the importation of any electoral material.
According to reports, the foreigners working for Smartmatic International are technicians who will assist the IEBC in implementing the technology during the campaign season.
Profile
Established in Florida in 2000, Smartmatic initially developed secure software for banking and IoT.
After the “hanging chad” incident in the 2000 US election, the company shifted its focus to improving voting.
From Los Angeles to The Philippines, from Utah to Belgium, and from London to Argentina, Smartmatic has successfully deployed secure election technologies in more than 30 countries. Election officials have used Smartmatic systems to record and tabulate more than 6.5 billion votes with zero security breaches. We pioneered voting machines with voter-verified paper records, a feature that is now the de facto standard for automated elections worldwide.
Smartmatic is an approved US Department of Defense vendor and a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security Council for the Election Infraestructure Sector.
Scandals
According to reports by Kenyans.co.ke, Smartmatic International has been involved in controversial dealings spanning over two decades.
Smartmatic has since 2004 been involved in electoral processes for countries in Africa, Asia, and America.
In January 2022, the Philippines Cyber Crime Investigations Center reported that the IT firm had been compromised during the execution of the country’s presidential elections in 2016. Current President, Bongbong Marcos, contested his defeat in the 2016 elections, blaming it on irregularities and discrepancies in the electoral process. An inquiry established that there was a server error in Smartmatic’s system.
Smartmatic International was also engulfed in controversy during Venezuela’s Parliament elections in 2017 after it reported that the polls had been manipulated by over one million ballots. Despite not being involved, the firm asserted that it had the election’s turnout had been manipulated.
Venezuela’s electoral commission, however, maintained that the results had not been tampered with. The company would later exit Venezuela in 2018 in unclear circumstances.
The company had previously been implicated in a scandal during the 2004 elections in the same country. A section of election observers overseeing the elections reported that the process was marred by electronic fraud and irregularities.
In 2006, allegations that the company was linked to the Venezuelan government arose during the local elections in Chicago, US. The same allegations resurfaced in 2020 when former US President, Donald Trump, accused the company of collaborating with Venezuela’s government to scuttle his reelection plans.
However, the company defended its reputation and played down the allegations. The company had earlier this year filed a defamation suit against American news outlet Fox News after it reported that Smartmatic had suffered a multi-billion loss. According to Smartmatic, Fox News’ disinformation risked losing the company’s trust of clients in the US.
In response to the controversies, IEBC defended its decision to award the contract to Smartmatic, arguing that the Commission was not privy to the reports that linked Smartmatic to the issues raised. The Commission added that the company was best placed to respond to such allegations.
“I relied on the report of the evaluation committee that did their due diligence and provided me with the report. That is what I rely on. These issues were never cited.
“This would require the company to respond. This information did not come to our attention. It would be proper at this time, for the company to respond to such queries,” remarked IEBC CEO, Hussein Marjan.
