For 22 years now, Smartmatic International has been in the business of building and implementing electronic voting systems.
The company that lists London, United Kingdom as its headquarters, dates back to 2000, when it established its first base in Florida, USA.
“Smartmatic focused on building the most secure, accessible and easy-to-use election technologies designed to safeguard the process from start to finish,” the company says on its website.
“Today, Smartmatic is the world’s largest, most advanced and innovative elections technology company,” the firm adds.
The company has since spread its presence to other parts of the world, including Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. It also has a strong presence in Venezuela, where some of its co-founders hail from.
The company says some of its specialties in election management include monitoring of contracted field support technicians, monitoring SIM cards for polling location technicians and planning, allocation and detailed proof of installation of election technology.
Smartmatic has been contracted by several countries to run their elections’ technology.
These include Venezuela, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Albania, Zambia, Uganda, Philippines and the United States.
In the Uganda polls, Smartmatic says on its website that it “provided 38,500 biometric voter authentication kits and field logistics”.
“Smartmatic also provided training for thousands of employees, including headquarter operators, field operators, support technicians and EC system administrators. This effort registered about 3 million new voters.”
Kenya becomes the latest country to contract the firm in managing elections.
The company’s reputation, however, has been under sharp scrutiny after it was accused of mismanaging elections in the US and the Philippines.
In the Philippines, the firm faced accusations of manipulating the Vice-President results in the 2016 polls.
Days after the May 2016 elections, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. alleged that Smartmatic had tampered with the votes, which cost him being elected vice president, Philippine English newspaper Manila Times reported.
Marcos attributed his narrow and controversial defeat to the Liberal Party's Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo to discrepancies and irregularities in servers and data.
In the US, the company faced allegations of impropriety in the November 3, 2020 US presidential election.
Sections of the media in the US alleged that results were manipulated against the then-President Donald Trump, claims that Smartmatic vehemently denied, and even went ahead to sue the news organisations that published the reports.
Forbes reported in April 2021 that Smartmatic filed a defamation suit against Fox News, three of its anchors and two Trump loyalists for $2.7 billion (Sh296 billion) in financial damages.
The Standard wishes to state that there are no records indicating any involvement of Smartmatic in election malpractice.
In Kenya, Smartmatic bid for IEBC technology tender in the March 4, 2013 General Election, but lost to French firm Safran (Morpho).
In the August 8, 2017 polls, another company won the tender.
This time around, Smartmatic, on its second attempt at clinching the Kenyan deal, has been lucky.
Forbes, in an April 2021 report, said Smartmatic’s Venezuelan co-founders had projected that the company’s net value would be $2.7 billion (Sh296 billion) by 2026.
On Thursday, July 21, three Venezuelan nationals, who are employees of Smartmatic, were arrested upon landing at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
Police said the three contractees of the IEBC were in possession of election-related stickers that hadn’t been declared upon arrival.
However, after investigations, the IEBC personnel were released, with police saying they had established that the said-stickers belonged to the electoral commission.
IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati had written a protest statement, alleging intimidation by the State.
In the upcoming election, 22,152,144 Kenyans were listed as registered voters by the electoral board, IEBC.
The voters will choose their leaders across six cadres, which are president, governor, senator, Member of National Assembly, Woman Representative and Member of County Assembly.
