Comelec ensures transparency in poll results

CEBU, Philippines — For the first time, the transmittal records during the national and local elections this May will be made public plus other measures to be done to ensure transparency, Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia announced yesterday.

Garcia during the Voter's Education and Automated Counting Machine (ACM) Demonstration with the Rotary Club of Manila at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City said that the Comelec needs to move forward with several firsts to be introduced in the coming elections.

“Regardless of our belief on what happened in 2022 or the elections before that, well, we will definitely respect all these opinions. But what is important is we have to move forward and that's very important. We have to ensure that the integrity, especially of the transmission, is protected, so how do we ensure that? We ensure that by having other entities receiving copies of the results coming from the precinct,” Garcia said.

Among the firsts that will be done is the printing of election returns to different groups monitoring the proceedings including the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), the majority and minority parties, among others.

“Pagnatapos na po yung voting, the machine will be printing nine election returns.This are all first time. (The) PPCRV, NAMFREL, majority party, minority party, bibigyan ng kopya before the transmission of the results. They will be given hard copies of the election returns,” said Garcia.

Another copy will be posted on the wall of the polling precincts.

“One of the copies of the nine, will be posted at the wall of the precinct so that those who didn’t get a copy can take a copy of the election returns…so alam mo na agad yung results,” he added.

After the distribution of the election returns, the machine will be sending the results, for the first time, to the different entities.

“PPCRV will have its own server? Namfrel will have its own server, the majority party, the minority party and the media will have its own servers. They can compare among themselves whether the machine have sent the same results coming from the same precinct…And all these entities will be located in just one building so they can compare,” Garcia said.

More importantly, Garcia said, all ballot images inserted for the entire day into the machine will be available for viewing and documentation.

“Papakita po namin sa lahat ng watchers and observers inside the precinct. And we will allow all of the watchers, observes to take videos or pictures of the ballot images so they themselves can count the ballots manually the votes…If the vote of the mayor is really one hundred, compare with the election returns and transmitted by the machine. This is a work in progress,” Garcia explained.

Garcia added that the machine that will be used is “stand-alone machine” and the only way it could be hacked is if it is attached to another gadget.

“The only way by which it can be hacked, is if the machine is connected to something. It's a stand-alone machine and, therefore, it's not attached to anything,” Garcia said.

One week after the election, the Comelec chair disclosed that “all the audit logs, all the transmission logs, the IP addresses of all the machines that we use during the election will be published, that even without anyone asking for it.

“So that entities like the PPCRV, NAMFREL and other entities can compare what time was the machine sending the results para makita po nila,” Garcia said.

Garcia also disclosed that election results will be sent by 7 o’clock yet and even if it will be sent earlier, the canvassing centers will not accept it if it is not yet 7PM.

“So these are things which we enhance, we innovate. We do not want a repeat of the accusation. Allegation always be allegations of cheating, of, of adding, of deductive votes, of course kung hindi ipinapaliwanag,” Garcia ended.  JG (CEBU NEWS)