MANILA, Philippines — Smartmatic-TIM, the company that won the bid to supply the automated election machines to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for next year’s polls, said the Aboitiz-owned 2GO forwarding company would no longer be its sole logistics provider.

Instead, Smartmatic said, it would hire other logistics and transport firms to deliver the equipment and personnel needed for the 2010 national and presidential elections to the country’s various regions.

“Regarding the logistics for the automated voting machines, Smartmatic-TIM has decided to include different regional logistics providers to the project,” Cesar Flores, Smartmatic-TIM spokesperson, said in a statement.

“This is meant to distribute the responsibility of deliveries among various companies, as opposed to a single provider. This would ensure that no one company’s resources are over-extended,” he said.

The company also announced that it transferred the manufacture of its election machines from Taiwan to Shanghai, China recently due to weather concerns. The company said the transfer to the “bigger facility” was approved by the Comelec.

“This is a precaution against weather or climate disturbances that may affect the process in the aftermath of tropical storms Ondoy and Pepeng,” Flores said.

The company must deliver over 82,000 voting and counting machines to the Comelec to be used in the May elections. Aside from the machines, Smartmatic-TIM is also responsible for the transport and management of the machines under its P7.2-billion contract with the Comelec.

Despite the changes, Comelec and Smartmatic-TIM officials said they were on track with the election schedule.

“Please rest assured that these developments will not in any way delay the project’s implementation,” the company said.