PPCRV: Audit of midterm polls continues

MANILA, Philippines — Audits of the midterm elections will continue even after the winning candidates have been proclaimed, according to poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

“Even if the proclamations have been done with, the PPCRV will still continue its audits – the random manual audit and the audit of transmission (data from the server),” PPCRV executive director Jude Liao told The STAR.

As of 10 a.m. yesterday, the PPCRV Command Center has received 32,650 election returns or 35 percent of over 93,000 ERs that are expected to arrive.

The group’s target is to audit at least 70 to 80 percent of total ERs, which is higher than previous years.

Auditing data from the transmission server will run until June 12, while the random manual audit is expected to be completed in six weeks.

Liao said collecting ERs is a difficult task as some volunteers and coordinators cross mountains or waterways.

“The post-election week is more challenging in terms of getting more volunteers because many people have already returned to their regular lives. We have partnered with schools, organizations and churches, but it is only after work hours, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., when many of the volunteers come in and we try to catch up with the auditing,” he noted.

Winning party-list groups were proclaimed yesterday, while the 12 new senators were declared on Saturday.