MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will require election returns to be posted outside every polling precinct before results are transmitted to its servers to allow voters, political parties, election watchdogs and the media to check the figures.
Responding to a question from The Manila Times at the launch of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) command center for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary election in Makati on Tuesday, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said the Electoral Board, composed of teachers designated by the Comelec, must post a copy of the election return outside every precinct before transmitting the results.
"Once the results are transmitted, everyone—even an ordinary voter—will know the results at the precinct," Garcia said in Filipino and English.
The posted returns would allow voters, candidates and political party watchers to photograph the results and compare them with figures received by the Comelec, PPCRV, the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), political parties and media organizations, the poll chief said.
He said that the system would provide multiple sources for checking election results.
"Even if one result fails, or one body receiving it fails, you still have other sources to get it from," Garcia said in Filipino.
Garcia said that media organizations would also have their own servers for receiving election results during the BARMM election.
He said the PPCRV server in Makati was not a secret server, adding that the public server is located at Vitro Makati and a backup server at Vitro Parañaque.
"That is open to everyone, especially to members of the media and political parties," Garcia said in Filipino and English.
The Comelec chairman said transmission times could also be checked against the physical election returns and transmission logs.
PPCRV plans to collect physical election returns from polling centers across BARMM and compare them with electronically transmitted results as part of its unofficial parallel count.
Garcia said the Comelec is committed to proclaiming the winning candidates by the morning of Sept. 15.
Respect autonomy
The Duyog Bangsamoro, a “national, broad, and independent multisectoral” coalition called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to respect the autonomy of the Bangsamoro, as it holds its first parliamentary elections next week.
Duyog Bangsamoro said that something “hopeful” was happening in the country through the polls in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
“We are all systems go for the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections this Sept. 14, a long-delayed, yet essential milestone in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and genuine peace in the region. Though these elections have not been immune to the patronage and violence that plague Philippine politics in general, it is the dissimilarity to the national situation that gives hope to the region and the country as a whole,” Duyog Bangsamoro said in a statement that was reshared by Tindig Pilipinas on Wednesday.
“We call on President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., as both President of the Philippines and Chairman of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, to prevent any effort by actors outside the region to influence the outcome of the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections for or against any specific regional political party and to assure all regional political parties of the national government’s continued support for the BARMM’s regional and local governments and the fulfillment of the CAB regardless of which parties win the elections,” they added.
According to the group, the BARMM’s electoral code and local governance code has anti-dynasty provisions and also the Bangsamoro Transitional Authority legislated the country’s first gender quota for the nominees of its regional political parties.
“In contrast to the marginalization of indigenous peoples throughout the country, the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples of the BARMM, who continue to face challenges to their land and dignity on multiple fronts, successfully nominated its two sectoral representatives to the Bangsamoro Parliament at the culmination of a truly innovative and participative selection process, notwithstanding pressures from different interests… In contrast to a national politics dominated by personalities, the first BARMM parliamentary electoral debate put party and platform at the forefront, thanks to the expansion of proportional representation in the region’s electoral system,” the group said.
