Party-list winners to be proclaimed Thursday

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking to finally proclaim “at all costs” the winning party-list groups on Thursday.

Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarugan has ordered the resumption of canvassing of votes for the party-list groups on Wednesday afternoon at the Philippine International Convention Center.

“Please be notified that the Commission on Elections, sitting en banc as the National Board of Canvassers, will reconvene its session at 3:00 in the afternoon on May 25 to continue the canvassing of votes for the party-list groups,” Pangarungan said.

Commissioner George Garcia said the poll body initially wanted to hold a one-time proclamation of all winning party-list groups, thus they decided to wait for the results of the special elections in Lanao del Sur.

“We would like to proclaim … (those with) guaranteed seats. They should have been proclaimed already,” Garcia said at a press briefing yesterday.

“It’s unfair to those who got three seats, unfair to those who got two seats, they should have already been proclaimed so at all costs we will be able to proclaim at the latest Thursday,” Garcia added.

Based on initial computation, Garcia said there is very little difference between the party-list groups in the 63rd and 64th positions. He said there are less than 2,000 votes garnered by groups from 60th to 63rd positions.

“So definitely the result in Tubaran will affect the party-list (tally) so it’s important to wait,” Garcia explained, referring to the Lanao town holding special elections.

If the special elections end by 7 p.m. today, Garcia said the 15 polling precincts are expected to transmit the results to the Municipal Board of Canvassers about an hour later.

The Provincial Board of Canvassers may receive the results from the Municipal Board by 10 p.m. Then the whole province of Lanao del Sur will consolidate the results from 32 municipalities.

Garcia said in case the whole province fails to transmit the results by the evening of May 24, the Provincial Board of Canvassers has been instructed to transport “physically” the manual results.

In a worst-case scenario that results cannot be transmitted by May 24, Garcia said the Comelec will do manual uploading and canvass on May 25 and the winners proclaimed on May 26.