Elections: the tender for the recount of votes opens and a million-dollar fight between the companies begins

Like every odd year, the business around the elections becomes tempting for the political system, and

, which had lost the electoral monopoly of that item during the administration of Cambiemos.

Days ago, the Government opened the bidding process for the primaries, the general elections and a possible ballot, in charge of the National Electoral Directorate, dependent on the Minister of the Interior,

, who faces an uncertain scenario: if he is a candidate presidential, as proposed by a sector of Kirchnerism, should get rid of control of the elections.

This was what happened to Florencio Randazzo in 2015, when he was profiling himself as a candidate and Cristina Kirchner transferred the area to the Ministry of Justice.

According to official sources, up to now there have been

in the tender through the technical consultations that are usually carried out when the process begins:

.

In recent years, the bid for the provisional recount of the votes -the definitive scrutiny is in charge of the electoral Justice- was focused almost exclusively on Indra and Smartmatic,

.

In 2021, in fact, they were the only two that entered the contest.

Indra's monopoly and the irruption of a Chavista firm

The Spain-based company

, when it won the first tender for uploading, processing and disseminating the provisional count of votes.

But in 2019, the last year of

in government, the company was left without scrutiny control for the first time: it lost, precisely, at the hands of

, a

that later expanded to a global level .

regional and that managed to enter the business at the hands of the macrismo.

What's more: until this year, the firm still concentrated data transmission.

The tender that he won then during the management of Cambiemos expires at the end of this next election.

In the last legislative elections, Indra offered, as reported at the time by the Ministry of the Interior, "110 million pesos less than the competing company", that is, Smartmatic.

The business was awarded for just over

.

This year, the total budget for the PASO, the general elections and the second round is about $55,000 million.

As reported, in addition to the technical issue,

, whose opening of offers is scheduled for March.

Official sources assured this newspaper that in 2021 Minister De Pedro was satisfied with Indra's work, and that

.

It is one of the main concerns of Smartmatic.

It is, in this sense, the same restlessness that Indra had during Macri's administration: they were always suspicious of the relationship between the PRO and its competitor after the final landing in the country.

The third company that, according to government sources, carried out some technical surveys in advance of the tender is the

.

MSA is in charge of the electronic voting system in Salta, and implemented the Single Electronic Ballot in 2015 in the City of Buenos Aires, which never used that system again.

According to market sources, MSA, however,

technical background to submit to the tender: it should, in that case, form a joint venture with other companies. 

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