Smartic International, company providing IEBC election technology, responds to accusations raised in Kenyan interview

On Wednesday, during a live interview with journalists, IEBC CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan was asked about the past queries surrounding the company’s credibility in handling elections in a number of countries such as the Philippines and Venezuela. 

Marjan said he was not aware of Smartmatic’s past, noting that the accusations were not brought to his attention before the decision was made to hand them the tender for the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) kits.

Citizen Digital contacted Smartmatic International Holding and the company dismissed the allegations that the election systems it deployed in various countries were tampered with or interfered with.

“Elections are prone to controversies. This is true in Kenya, the United States, France and basically everywhere in the world. It is therefore extremely important that people who bear the responsibility of forming a public opinion to be on the alert for biased reporting, clickbait articles and fake news,” said Samira Saba, the company’s Head of Communications.

In the Venezuelan case where the company was accused of skewing the presidential polls, Saba pointed out that the system they deployed was hailed as the “best voting system in the world” by former US President Jimmy Carter.

“From 2004 until 2017, we provided technology and services for all national elections organized by Venezuela’s National Elections Council. Former US President and founder of the Carter Center, Jimmy Carter, named the system we developed for Venezuela “the best voting system in the world,” she said.

Similarly, she dismissed the accusations that Smartic compromised the Philippines elections saying: “Despite all the misinformation and disinformation on cyberspace, the Philippines is today a reference for well-run elections.”

In the US case, Saba explained that Los Angeles hired Smartmatic to set up what is considered one of the most advanced and voter-centric election systems in existence, and that contrary to accusations the project was a phenomenon.

“The Voting Solutions for All People allows voters to cast their ballot in any of 13 languages, from any vote centre in the county, for a period of 11 days. We’re proud to have been part of this ground-breaking project,” she said.

The company assured Kenyans that there would be no interference in its systems in the upcoming polls, insisting that it is a highly reputable election technology provider.

“Since 2000 when our company was founded, we have deployed election technologies in 31 countries, helping election authorities process more than 6.5 billion votes on five continents. For the last 20 years, Smartmatic has built its reputation as the undisputed leader in the elections industry,” said Saba.