Comelec won’t rush proclamation of winners

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will not rush the proclamation of winners in order to attain a credible election on May 9.

The poll body is not aspiring to surpass its previous performance in the 2013 elections, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said yesterday.

“We are not looking at any previous performance as a hard target. We want to improve from the last elections,” Jimenez said.

He said automated election does not mean having speedy results as it is intended to provide the public a better alternative.

“If we are fine-tuning automation and if you need to take a hit in some areas so you can boost other areas, I think you should look at it holistically,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez, however, assured the public that the proclamation of winners in the upcoming polls would not depart much from the 2013 polls.

“In my estimates, we will not be far from the 72 hours (in 2013),” he said.

In 2013, the Comelec proclaimed the six winning senators three days after the elections and the next three senators the following day.

The 12 winning senators then were proclaimed less than a week after the elections despite the transmission rate of only 76 percent.

Former Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal earlier warned of possible delay in the proclamation of winners as the poll body adopted a new procedure.

Under the new procedure, the Board of Canvassers (BoC) cannot transmit the results of the canvassing until all Secure Digital (SD) cards from the provincial level have been imported.

Comelec website more secured

The Comelec website  is now accessible and ready for use by 55 million registered voters one month after it was hacked, according to Jimenez.

He said the website contains the list of registered voters and deactivated voters so that the people can check if they can still vote or not.

The Comelec posted on its website templates for the ballots for each city or municipality.

The only similar information in the ballots are the candidates running for national posts, Jimenez said.

Aside from the voters’ list and template of ballots, the public can also search and download the different Comelec resolutions concerning the conduct of the May 9 polls.

Jimenez assured the public that the website is more secure and safe from hackers.

Defective VCMs

The vote counting machines (VCMs) the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has sent to Congress for the canvassing of presidential and vice presidential votes later this month are defective.

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said yesterday the machines are generating the wrong vote tallies.

“The machines cannot generate provincial and city certificates of canvass (COCs), only regional tabulations,” he said.

Under the law, the congressional canvass of votes for president and vice president should be based on the provincial and city COCs, Gonzales said.

“The regional tallies are useless to us,” he said.

The software defect was detected when the VCMs were tested on Tuesday.

Gonzales said he immediately phoned Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista and asked him to send technicians to reprogram the VCMs.

The canvassing will be done at the plenary hall of the House of Representatives at the Batasan complex in Quezon City.

The House and the Senate will convene as a canvassing board shortly after sessions resume on May 23.

The Senate is in charge of receiving the manually accomplished COCs showing the votes for president and vice president from the provincial and city board of canvassers.

The COCs are to be sealed in ballot boxes.

The Senate will have to form a reception committee that will receive the ballot boxes, which will be transported to the House before the start of canvass.

In the past, COCs were tabulated in the order the Senate received them. Most likely, this will be the procedure that will be followed in this year’s canvassing.

During the canvass, the VCMs deployed in the House will generate electronic COCs for comparison with the manually done vote certificates.

The House and the Senate have started enforcing stricter security measures in preparation for the canvassing.

After determining the winners, the two chambers will proclaim them in a joint public session.

Manual counting

Votes cast by detainee voters for local candidates will be counted manually, according to the Comelec.

Comelec Commissioner Luie Guia, chairman of the committee on detainee voting, said the poll body has decided to separate the ballots containing votes for local positions.

Guia said ballots containing the votes for national posts would be counted using the VCMs while the votes for both local and national positions would be counted manually.

“Since the temporary restraining order (TRO) came in late and our process is already in place, this is the least disruptive system we thought we can have,” Guia explained.

The Supreme Court (SC) had earlier issued a TRO stopping detainees from voting in the local elections.

Guia said the commission came out with a resolution to address the issue following the SC ruling.

Under Comelec Resolution No. 10112, detainee ballots with votes only for national positions will be fed into the machines.

Ballots containing votes for local positions will be placed in separate envelopes so they could be counted manually.

Votes for local candidates will be considered stray votes by the Special Board of Election Inspectors, Guia said.

There are around 64,000 prisoners who are registered to vote in 248 detention facilities nationwide.

PCG on alert for polls

Philippine Coast Guard commandant Rear Admiral William Melad placed the PCG on heightened alert yesterday in preparation for the May 9 elections.

PCG spokesman Commander Armand Balilo yesterday said that Melad mobilized the PCG’s sea marshals, quick response teams, K-9 units and shore patrol teams.

The PCG will assist the Comelec in transporting the ballots and other election paraphernalia. – With Jess Diaz, Evelyn Macairan