Palace calls for transparency in manual vote audit

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang on Friday joined the calls for transparency in the random manual audit (RMA) being conducted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) following reported "discrepancies" in the partial results. 

 

"I understand that the variances or the discrepancies found in the random manual audit are, at this stage, partial," Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

 

"We do hope, given the interest of everybody in ensuring that the elections are credible and trustworthy and reflect the sentiments of the our people, we also join in the calls to make the results transparent as well as the findings," Valte said.

 

Earlier this week, the Comelec revealed that there were indeed "variances" in the RMA initial findings when compared with the electronic results of the May 13 elections.

 

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said these variances are now being segregated already to determine which have and don’t have issues.

 

But the poll chief downplayed the variances, saying these 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 --a 20 percent shading-- compared to the human eye.

 

Under the poll automation law, RMA must be conducted in at least one precinct per congressional district randomly chosen by the Comelec.

 

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

 

Valte said the Palace would also like to see the RMA results when the full report has been finalized and is ready.

 

Brillantes said the poll body expects the RMA to be completed not later than June 22.