Academics call for responsible data science in analyzing polls

MANILA, Philippines — More than 100 data science professionals and academics called for responsible data science in national discourse in connection with the 2016 general elections.

This follows allegations of election fraud when Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo overtook Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. in the partial and unofficial vote count of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the vice presidential race.

"People need to be able to trust data. This means there is great responsibility on the part of those who collect, analyze, interpret, and report data, especially when it concerns matters of public interests," the academics said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Ateneo de Manila University Prof. David Yap earlier claimed that he has discovered patterns on the votes that came into the transparency server of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting.

De La Salle University Prof. Antonio Contreras then insisted that the patterns discovered by Yap were signs of electoral fraud based on the trends on votes received by Robredo and Marcos.

Other academics, however, insisted that the trend on votes garnered by Marcos and Robredo does not prove electronic electoral fraud.

"Here, we assert that an inverted V-shaped graph of the difference of votes between vice-presidential candidates Marcos and Robredo, plotted against the percentage of votes transmitted, does not amount to evidence of fraud," the statement read.

The academics' statement further explained that the trend on votes is an expected pattern as the votes came in from different regions at different times.

"Many individuals and groups carried out independent analyses and communicated technical and logical arguments arriving at this conclusion," the academics said.

The camp of Robredo has challenged Marcos to present evidence proving that certificates of canvass are not authentic.

Marcos earlier asked the Comelec to conduct a system audit of the transparency and central servers of the Automated Election System. The poll body, however, unanimously decided to postpone action on the senator's request.