Comelec to release manual audit results this week

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is ready to release the results of the random manual audit (RMA) in the May elections.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said the poll body is set to come out with the full report on the RMA anytime this week. He said the RMA results in over 200 randomly selected polling precincts nationwide would be published.

Brillantes said the Comelec could not publish the RMA results in all 234 polling precincts since some are under the custody of the courts due to protests.

“We cannot come out with the others since the court has issued protective orders due to pending protest cases,” he said.

The Comelec chief gave assurance that the poll body was able to meet the required 99.995 percent accuracy rate of the RMA compared to the results of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.     

The Poll Automation Law requires the conduct of RMA in one precinct in each of the 234 congressional districts randomly chosen by the Comelec.

The original Terms or Reference (TOR) used by the Comelec’s  Special Bids and Awards Committee in selecting the automated election system (AES) in 2009 had required a 99.995 percent accuracy rate of the ballot appreciation.

It means there is only an allowable error rate of only one mark per 20,000 marks for the PCOS machines.

Brillantes said the results of the RMA should already be acceptable, even to the critics.

“There will always be difference. There will always be variants or discrepancies, no matter how you look at it. It cannot be perfect, no matter how you look at it,”  he said.