A bit of information that was not mentioned in the bio-data of Smartmatic Chairman Mark Malloch Brown, as posted on the company’s website, was that he was the close media adviser and speech writer of the late Corazon Aquino. He was then disguised as a foreign correspondent in the “snap” elections that led to the 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines.

He may even have played a very crucial role in Cory Aquino’s ascent to power in 1986, according to an authoritative book on that episode.