Public can access poll results on new website

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will post in a new website the results of the voting based on the election returns (ERs) that will be generated by the vote counting machines (VCMs).

In an interview, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the new website will contain all the canvassed ERs as transmitted to the National Command Center.

“We will have a new feature for this election. We will have a public site of all the election returns from all the 92,509 clustered precincts nationwide,” Bautista revealed.

He said the public could view the ERs, an experience that would enhance the credibility and transparency of the coming polls.

An ER is a document produced by the VCMs that contains information on specific polling precincts and voting centers, and the votes cast for each candidate in the precincts. 

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez earlier assured the public that the new website is different from the poll body’s official website, which was hacked last month.

He said the level of security for this website is “definitely more stringent than the official website,” describing it as more of a list of commands to the army and less of a grocery list.

Meanwhile, Comelec Commissioner Sheriff Abas said 90 percent of the VCMs for the May 9 polls have already been deployed to the regional hubs across the country, and the remaining units are those that will be used in the National Capital Region.

“Hopefully, before the final testing and sealing, we will be able to send all of the machines,” said Abas, who heads the Comelec packing and shipping committee.

He added that the VCMs in Comelec’s regional hubs would be moved to the polling precincts from May 2 to 6, in time for the final testing and sealing.

The deployment of official ballots, he continued, will be completed by May 4.

“We did not want to deploy early because something might happen and we don’t want to be compromised,” Abas said.  

Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz also urged the Comelec yesterday to look into the reported irregularities in the overseas absentee voting (OAV).

“These reports, which have been widely circulated in both traditional and social media, if true, are definitely disturbing and a cause of great concern to us all,” De la Cruz said in a letter to Comelec’s Bautista.

Among the cases he cited were the “incomplete voters list that resulted in confusion and non-voting of qualified voters, the irregular vote verification that happened in Hong Kong and Kuwait, and the votes intended for vice presidential aspirant Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that were recorded for Sen. Gregorio Honasan instead.”

Senatorial candidates Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares made a similar appeal. –  With Jess Diaz