Brillantes downplays discrepancies in vote audit

MANILA, Philippines - Discrepancies detected in the random manual audit and the electronic results of the May 13 elections were initial and are no cause for alarm, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the discrepancies found by the Random Manual Audit Team (RMAT) were minimal and expected.

He said the machine count could not be exactly the same as human counting since precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines have a different threshold compared to the human eye.

Brillantes said the Comelec was also transparent in confirming the discrepancies.

“I could have erred with the use of the word discrepancy. Ambassador Tita de Villa is right, the correct term is variances,” he said.

The Comelec has started segregating the discrepancies found by the RMAT to determine which have issues.

Brillantes said the variances could be due to the appreciation of the votes since there is a 20 percent shading threshold for the PCOS machines.

Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and random manual audit committee chair Henrietta de Villa said the discrepancies have to be validated.

The poll automation law provides that random manual audit be conducted in at least one precinct per congressional district randomly chosen by the Comelec.

It also states that any difference between the automated and manual count will require a determination of root cause and initiation of a manual count.

Brillantes said they expect the random manual audit to be completed not later than June 22.