2013 Election

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that the 2013 mid-term elections in the country would be automated, but said it would go back to the manual system if the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) polls push through this year.

To prepare for the 2013 and the 2016 elections, the Comelec has been holding strategic planning among key officials during weekends to identify the strong and weak aspects of the poll body.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes said the computerization of the Comelec’s system was among moves eyed as possible strategy to ensure transparency and speed up operations in the agency.

But with the Comelec abandoning its plan to automate the ARMM polls, Smartmatic International Corp. is seeking payment for its “consultancy services.”

Com­mis­sion on Elec­tions (Com­elec) poll body might use a new tech­nol­ogy to make the 2013 com­put­er­ized elec­tions bet­ter than last year’s.

Com­elec Com­mis­sioner Lucen­ito Tagle said they are ini­ti­at­ing the prepa­ra­tions for the next national and local elec­tions using the auto­mated elec­tion sys­tem (AES) again. But Tagle, who was appointed head of the Com­elec steer­ing com­mit­tee for the 2013 polls, said they might employ a new technology.

“This doesn’t mean that Smart­matic will be barred from join­ing. They can still be our ser­vice provider in 2013 if they can win our pub­lic bid­ding,” Tagle said.

Smart­matic pro­vided the Com­elec with the precinct count opti­cal scan (PCOS) machines used in the 2010 polls. Crit­ics of the tech­nol­ogy, how­ever, con­tinue to ques­tion the integrity of such a technology.

Tagle said the Com­elec is already in the process of com­plet­ing the mem­ber­ship of the com­mit­tee that would pre­pare for the next nation­als and local elections.


Philippines 2013 Election

The Legislative elections and local elections will be held on May 13, 2013. The duly elected legislators of the 2013 elections will join the elected senators of the 2010 elections and will comprise the 16th Congress of the Philippines. The elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will also be held.

This is to elect 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate. Together with those elected in 2010, they will comprise the 16th Congress. The senators elected in 2010 will serve until June 30, 2016, while the senators elected in this election will serve up to June 30, 2019.

The elections to the House of Representatives as well as local elections will occur on the same date. The Philippines uses plurality-at-large voting for seats in the Senate: the twelve candidates with the highest amount of votes wins the twelve seats up for election.

The Senate seat vacated by President Benigno Aquino III in 2010 will be among the twelve seats to be put for election.

Stay tuned for the 2013 Election Latest News Update and Result.

Comelec: All systems go for barangay, SK elections

Despite earlier hitches, all materials related to Monday's elections will be delivered to all barangays across the country on Sunday, Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez said.

In an interview with ANC, Jimenez said “there’s a bit of good news there. A lot of deliveries that we were running late on, left Manila [Saturday] night…So, it looks like by 2:00 p.m. [today], we’ll be a hundred percent.”

The poll body has been working nonstop during the last few days for the printing of ballots and management of other paraphernalia for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

The delivery of some of the election-related materials, however, was hampered by the onslaught of typhoon Juan.

“In some cases, some ballots that were sent were damaged in transit. Some of them arrived in the wrong places. We have those little things that fall through the cracks. We started replacing them last night and today,” he said.

Jimenez noted that Comelec employees even had to work all throughout Saturday night.

“So the strategy is this: We had lot of shipments go out last night by sea and by air this very very early morning. We've arranged some flights direct to some places,” he said.

He said the Comelec hopes that the polls tomorrow will be 90% to 95% successful.

Postponement

The Comelec has already decided to suspend the elections in 3 areas in Isabela: Divilacan, Maconacon and Palanan. These 3 were badly hit by typhoon Juan.

“We’re also looking at several other places in Abra, Mountain Province and Batanes,” he said.

The decision will be released later Sunday.

“It all really depends on how quickly reconstruction efforts can proceed, but there are some places where storm damage is so really bad,” he said.

Some schools, which are used during elections, have been transformed into evacuation centers.

“Gymnasiums have been offered to us, but again not all of them are fit for election purposes. In a lot of places also, the major concern is lack of power…but we've moved up the election hours from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” he said.

Comelec is also looking at postponing elections in certain parts of Mindanao because of the violence there, he added.

“We have some issues in the south about teachers being afraid to serve. We have some contingency measures for that but of course we can't totally shut out the possibility of some places having failure of elections,” he said.

Police cadets as BEIs

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has already offered its services to man violence-prone areas.

Some cadets will even be used as board of election inspectors (BEIs).

In a separate interview with ANC, PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, Jr. said “we have prepared enough personnel to man all the security assistance desks in all the barangays to secure the polling centers in the different provinces.”

Police are specifically monitoring Maguindanao and Lanao.

“Historically, we always see to it that we are more prepared for the barangay and SK elections because these elections are more personal in terms of the proximity of the contending political factions,” Cruz said.

However, the 2010 elections are relatively more peaceful compared to previous ones, he said.

Disqualification cases

Meanwhile, the poll body has ordered the filing of disqualification cases against more than 4,000 candidates in the barangay elections found to have already served 4 to 5 terms.

In Resolution 9077, the Comelec en banc ordered the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to submit a list of the names of these candidates.

The Comelec will then refer the names to its Law department, which will file the proper cases.

In a separate press conference, Jimenez said hearings will be conducted immediately. These would be summary in nature, meaning a case would only be heard through pleadings and position papers.

Each division handling a case will only be given three days to come up with a decision.

Jimenez said the erring candidates may also face criminal charges of perjury and material misrepresentation.

Names of suspected multiple termers will be forwarded to the election officers who will place an asterisk on their names to inform voters of their pending disqualification cases.

Their votes, however, would only be considered stray votes in the event that these candidates are officially disqualified.

If a multiple termer wins, his or her proclamation will be suspended pending the resolution of his or her disqualification case.

Comelec issues guidelines for delayed Barangay and SK Election

The Commission on Elections issued Monday a resolution to address the delays in the delivery of election paraphernalia to the country's 40,000 barangays.

Resolution No. 9078 states that barangay and Sangguniang Kabtaan elections can continue until 5 p.m. if the official ballots, accountable forms and other election paraphernalia for a particular precinct will arrive at its designated polling center before noon of October 25.

It states that if after 5 p.m., there are still voters present who have not yet cast their votes, "The poll clerk shall, without delay, list the names of said voters consecutively numbered. The voters listed shall be called to vote by the poll clerk by announcing each name three times in the order in which they are listed. Any voter in the list who is not present when called shall not be permitted to vote at any later time."

The Comelec said barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections will be postponed to the following day, October 26, or on the next day, October 27, if the official ballots, accountable forms and other election paraphernalia for a particular precinct arrive after 12 noon.

The poll body has been working nonstop during the last few days for the printing of ballots and management of other paraphernalia for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

The delivery of some of the election-related materials, however, was hampered by the onslaught of typhoon Juan.

The Comelec has already decided to suspend the elections in 3 areas in Isabela: Divilacan, Maconacon and Palanan. These 3 were badly hit by typhoon Juan.

The poll body also postponed elections in San Isidro and Salumague in Paniqui, Tarlac due to floods.

On the other hand, elections were also postponed in the following areas due to lack of elections materials. These are: Talalora, Daram, Zumarraga, San Jose de Buan Tagapulaan, Almagro, Santo Niño, Pagsanghan, Matuguinao and 7 remote barangays in Calbayog City.


Disqualification cases

Meanwhile, the poll body has ordered the filing of disqualification cases against more than 4,000 candidates in the barangay elections found to have already served 4 to 5 terms.

In Resolution 9077, the Comelec en banc ordered the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to submit a list of the names of these candidates.

The Comelec will then refer the names to its Law department, which will file the proper cases.

In a separate press conference, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said hearings will be conducted immediately. These would be summary in nature, meaning a case would only be heard through pleadings and position papers.

Each division handling a case will only be given three days to come up with a decision.

Jimenez said the erring candidates may also face criminal charges of perjury and material misrepresentation.

Names of suspected multiple termers will be forwarded to the election officers who will place an asterisk on their names to inform voters of their pending disqualification cases.

Their votes, however, would only be considered stray votes in the event that these candidates are officially disqualified.

If a multiple termer wins, his or her proclamation will be suspended pending the resolution of his or her disqualification case.

Back to manual for barangay polls, says Comelec

The Commission on Elections will likely revert to pen-and-paper voting for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in October.

The automated election system used in the May 10 national elections would be too expensive for the barangay and SK polls, said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.

“Traditionally we have always had manual elections even though automated solutions are available. Why? Because for barangay and SK elections, we do not have consolidation on a nationwide scale,” he explained.

In the automated election system used for the May 10 elections that the Comelec leased from Smartmatic TIM Corp. for P7.2 billion, voters cast machine-readable ballots. Precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines recorded, counted and transmitted the votes to canvassing centers where the numbers were electronically added up.

The counting and consolidation of votes through the automated system is “more expensive and takes a lot longer,” Jimenez said.

The barangay and SK elections have been scheduled for Oct. 25, unless the Congress passes a law canceling it.

Vice President-elect Jejomar Binay, who has expressed interest in heading the Department of Interior and Local Government, said he was in favor of abolishing the barangay and SK polls. Binay said barangay officials may be appointed by local executives, while the SK should be scrapped entirely.

Jimenez said the Comelec was not in any position to favor or disfavor the changes suggested by Binay.

He said the next batch of barangay and SK leaders should take Binay’s statements as a challenge and clean up their image as training ground for “traditional politicians.”

Initial Comelec results out at 9 p.m.

Transmission of votes has begun at 7 p.m. Monday and the Commission on Elections is expected to release the first official, consolidated results of the first ever automated presidential elections by 9 p.m., Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said.

Comelec officials said that results will be updated regularly as votes from various precincts come in.

Comelec's real-time vote counter

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it will release around 7 p.m. the URL (uniform resource locator) of its website, which will contain partial electronic counts that will be sent by Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

"So by that time, I understand, we should already have some results which will be viewable [from the website]," Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal told reporters.

Larrazabal said the first "official results, but unofficial tallies" will consist of 20% of the total votes cast from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m..

The succeeding results that will be fed into the website will come in 10% batches "so everybody will be updated."

Larrazabal said the national board of canvassers will suspend proceedings by 7 p.m. and reconvene at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

He assured that updates on the transmission of electronic votes will be non-stop from 7 p.m. Monday until all votes are counted.

He added that the votes that will be seen on the website are electronically sent by each PCOS machines, which is why the Comelec calls them "unofficial tallies."

Meanwhile, Larrazabal reiterated that the Comelec will not extend the voting hours beyond 7 p.m.

He, however, clarified that the names of the voters who are within 30 meters from the polling centers when the voting hours closed will be taken by board of election inspectors.

He said the names will be called thrice and they will be allowed to enter the polling precinct and then vote.

Comelec convenes as national board of canvassers for senatorial, partylist races

The Commission on Elections en banc has convened as the national board of canvassers for the senatorial and partylist contests.

The six commissioners and Comelec Chairman Jose Melo convened at 3 pm at the Philippine International Convention Center to set up the server and the canvassing system for the NBOC.

Members of political parties and lawyers of the candidates were invited to inspect the canvassing system.

85% voter turnout seen

The final kinks are still being ironed out, but in spite of the glitches and fears of doom and gloom, the country’s first automated presidential elections are off and running on Monday with a massive voter turnout expected.

Upward of 85 percent of the 50.7 million registered voters are likely to show up under the blistering summer sun, officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) predicted on the eve of the historic vote.

“Go to the precincts early,” said Comelec Chair Jose Melo at a news conference Sunday. “Go to the polling precincts prepared. Don’t be intimidated; don’t sell your votes. We should keep these elections as clean as possible.”

Barely 24 hours before the balloting, thousands of workers on board military and private aircraft and some on foot continued to deploy the remaining precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines still undelivered and dispatch replacements for defective memory cards discovered last week.

The mad rush to fix the eleventh-hour glitches could leave only 2 percent of the 76,300 precincts—in Northern Samar, Abra and Nueva Vizcaya—unable to vote on time, officials said.

The Comelec said the delay in some 1,500 precincts could be the lack of testing of the compact flash (CF) cards for the voting machines, and the malfunctioning of the “ibutton” security key used in starting up the voting machine.

“We’ll be hitting by [Monday] 98 percent preparedness or readiness,” Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said. He said this would be the worst-case scenario.

Earlier, the Comelec had said that 5 percent of precincts might hold special elections following the discovery that the CF cards had failed to read test ballots correctly. The problem led to the recall and replacement of the 76,300 CF cards in the PCOS machines.

In areas where the cards are delayed, the voters will still be allowed to vote, but the ballots will be gathered and later fed into the machines when the cards arrive, Melo said.

Comelec Executive Director Jose Tolentino said some 85 percent of the CF cards had been tested as of Sunday afternoon.

Latest hiccup

The ibutton issue was the latest hiccup in the system, but Cesar Flores, Asia Pacific president of Smartmatic, the Comelec’s technology partner, said this had been anticipated.

“Basically, this falls into what I always told you about machine failure or other components like printers, screens, buttons,” Flores said.

The issue was already being addressed, he said. Replacement ibuttons were flown to the problematic precincts Sunday afternoon.

“We have a reason to smile. Our big problem which caused this big worry are the CF cards. Now, all the voting machines, all the ballots, all the ballot boxes are in place. They are in the voting places,” Melo said.

About 50.7 million registered voters nationwide are expected to cast their votes using computerized balloting. Instead of writing their choices on a blank ballot, they will make their choice by shading the oval next to the candidate’s name.

The ballot will be fed into the PCOS machines, which will automatically compute the
Tallies at the end of the voting day. The machines will also transmit the results to the canvassing centers.

Results in 36 hours

Flores said 60 to 70 percent of the election results were expected to be available later Monday night, with the rest arriving in 36 hours.

“By then we will know the probable winners, especially if the margin is big,” Melo said.

Because human intervention is taken out of the canvassing process, the window of opportunity for election cheats has lessened, officials said.

Explaining why he expected a good turnout, Melo said: “The interest here is heightened because it’s the presidential elections and people are curious about the machines. They would like to see how the machines will work.”

Sarmiento said that in previous elections, turnout was 70 to 80 percent. “Considering the two factors mentioned, it could hit even 85 percent,” he said.

Just do it

The last-minute problems had sparked calls for the polls’ postponement and fueled fears of vote-rigging and violence that have long sullied Philippine elections.

“The best way to disprove all the critics who say that this cannot be done is just to do it,” Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said.

“Some machines won’t work but they can be replaced and some voters may not go out to vote,” Larrazabal said, adding that the majority of Filipinos will cast their vote and demonstrate that “they have a stake in this democracy.”

“Too many people want the elections to succeed. Too many people want change,” he told The Associated Press.

Violence threatened to derail voting in some areas. More than 2,500 people have been arrested for violating a ban on firearms in public areas and police reported dozens of election-related killings.

Communist New People’s Army rebels also have threatened to attack government troops tasked with delivering the counting machines.

Larrazabal said the difficulty of tampering with the automated elections may have prompted some people to resort to violence and intimidation to bolster their electoral chances.

Poll hours extended to 7 p.m.

Following glitches encountered with several poll counting optical scan (PCOS) machines, the Commission on Elections extended voting hours from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Comelec Chairman Jose Melo announced in a press conference.

Originally, the 11-hour voting period that started at 7 a.m. would last up to 6 p.m.

However, reports of confusion and irritation among voters poured in during the initial hours of the voting period. Voters in several areas endured long lines amid the scorching summer sun.

“It seems that at this time, the voting process is not as fast as expected. So we are extending voting hours to 7 p.m.,” he said.

Comelec Hotlines

Due to the unexpected number of hits on Election Day, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) website has become unavailable for voters and the general public, as of posting time.

Those who want to find their precincts may call the information technology (IT) department of the Comelec. The hotlines are 527-0841, 527-2773, 527-2772, 527-0822, 526-7769 and 526-7770.

All systems go for May 10 polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and poll machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM said they are all set for Monday’s national elections.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez told ANC that all precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines have been delivered to their respective precincts. Most of them have been tested and sealed.

Despite some glitches, Jimenez said the poll body is confident all election paraphernalia will be in polling centers when they open at 7 a.m. on Monday.

Smartmatic’s Cesar Flores is also confident about Monday’s automated elections.

On his Twitter account, Flores announced that all compact flash cards have already been delivered to all municipalities.

“Glad to announce: all CF cards are at the municipalities, 92.3% of all PCOS at the precincts, and over 40% tested and sealed. Let's go!!!” Flores tweeted.

Comelec recalls 76,000 compact flash cards nationwide

The Commission on Elections on Tuesday said it is recalling an estimated 76,000 compact flash cards to be used in the May 10 elections after configuration errors in the flash cards caused precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to make tabulation errors during Monday’s mock polls.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the Commission en banc decided on the nationwide recall after poll machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM admitted that configuration errors in the flash cards caused the glitches.

"Instead of identifying specific places, we've just gone ahead and decided to treat this as a systemic problem. We're treating it as if it affects the entire system. So we will be pulling out the flash cards of all the PCOS machines to be used in the May elections and replacing them with new ones," Jimenez told ANC.

Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin backed the nationwide recall, adding that there is not enough time to test the ballot layout for each jurisdiction as proposed by Smartmatic.

Locsin, who is co-chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Elections, said news media should be vigilant on the delivery of the reconfigured compact flash cards after the discovery of the configuration error. "While replacing 76,000 flash cards can be done, there has to be a warehouse where these cards are stored," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

Smartmatic Southeast Asia president Cesar Flores earlier admitted the company made an error in the configuration of the flash compact discs, which is supposed to give each PCOS machine its identification number, the list of candidates it is counting and what type of ballot it is reading.

He said the configuration in the flash cards is different from the generic firmware in each PCOS machine. "By itself, the software has no name or no information about candidates or the precincts. What gives the machines the precinct specific information is a configuration file that is put in the compact flash memory, which is external," he said.

Flores said double spaces in the layout of the local ballot caused the PCOS machines to misread the votes for the local races, causing the tabulation errors. He said one reason for the configuration error was Smartmatic’s failure to test the machines on real ballots after the Comelec refused to overprint the number of ballots.

For his part, Jimenez said Smartmatic-TIM will need to send the newly reconfigured flash cards to the clustered precincts before Friday so that boards of election inspectors could start the testing and sealing procedures of the PCOS machines on May 7.

He added that despite the problems, the Comelec will not ask for a postponement of the May 10 elections.

Smartmatic admits error in configuring PCOS flash cards

Human error led to the failure of precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to correctly read votes for local positions during Monday’s mock polls, an official of poll machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM admitted Tuesday.

Smartmatic Southeast Asia president Cesar Flores said the company failed to properly configure compact flash disks of the PCOS machines to properly read the votes for the local races because of a difference in the layouts of the national and local ballots.

He said the PCOS machine incorrectly read the local ballot “because the local ballot has double spacing. If you look at the national [ballot], they are all single spaced.”

“If you mark the first row, it will be read correctly but for some reason, the configuration is telling the machine that the candidate on the second row is actually on a third row [because of the space],” he said in a press conference at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Manila.

Flores said Monday’s mock polls showed that the PCOS machines could only read votes for local candidates at the top of the lists.

“It’s a line on the configuration that was supposed to say ‘Major double-space.’ It’s a human error when the configuration was done and it has already been detected,” he said.

Flores said Smartmatic-TIM has received permission to test its reconfigured compact flash disks on the more than 2,200 layouts of ballots for the nationwide elections on May 10.

Under the new automated system, ballots for each municipality and district in the country will have a specific layout to show the list of candidates for local positions.

Flores said Comelec gave Smartmatic-TIM an extra 2 to 3 ballots per layout, which will be shaded and tested with the new configuration file.

He added, however, that if errors continue to happen in all the layouts, the company will be forced to recall all 76,000 flash disks that have already been deployed.

“We have 2,200 layouts if you mix municipalities and districts. We only need to test the 2,200 layouts. However, if all the jurisdictions will be affected, that means we will have to reprogram all 76,000 compact flash disks,” he said.

He added that the company has 240 people in Cabuyao, Laguna that could work on the reconfiguration of the flash disks immediately.

'Changed ballot design led to error'

In an interview on ANC on Tuesday, IT expert Lito Averia of AES [Automated Election System] Watch said the failure of PCOS machines to read votes for local positions during mock PCOS tests in various municipalities could be traced to the design of the ballots.

Averia said Comelec decided to change the listing of the names on the ballots from a vertical list to a horizontal list.

Averia said the PCOS machines are configured to read which ovals are shaded on the ballot based on the "intersections of the longitude and latitude of the ballot."

"The machine will expect to check if the ovals are shaded. I think that set of data was not properly configured or properly prepared. The machines read the ballots in 2 phases, the national and local. When the machines read the local, I think it got lost somewhere. It's not the configuration of the machine. The machine is somewhat confused because you're giving it the wrong directions. It is looking here when it should be looking somewhere else," he told ANC's Dateline Philippines.

Averia said Smartmatic-TIM has to recall all compact flash cards that have been deployed and reconfigure them to read votes for the local races in all 1,630 municipalities and districts in the country.

"They have to prepare the proper data for each ballot configuration. The Comelec has 1,630+ ballot configurations corresponding to the number of municipalities and districts. They have to prepare the correct data and put that into the flash cards. That is easy to do. The biggest challenge is logistical, recalling all those compact flash cards that were deployed, bringing them back to Smartmatic for reconfiguration and then delivering them back to the polling precincts. That would be the major challenge," he said.

Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin, co-chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Elections, said the configuration error did not mean that votes that were supposed to go to one candidate were added to another.

“If you had the misfortune of being an [Ernesto] Mercado or [Junjun] Binay, then it wouldn’t read [your votes] but it would read the [Erwin] Genuino which is G. It didn’t read the vote of Mercado and give it to Genuino,” he said.

An abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak report said vote counting machines in at least 4 localities failed to correctly read the ballots and tally the votes for local positions during Monday’s mock elections.

Some candidates for local positions in Pasay City; Makati City; Sto. Tomas, Batangas; and Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro got zero votes despite the fact that their poll watchers accomplished the ballots. The malfunctioning of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines spared no political parties and didn't appear to target particular positions.

The malfunctions prompted Comelec to postpone all further testing and sealing of the PCOS machines throughout Luzon (including the National Capital Region), Visayas and Mindanao to May 7.

The poll body also recalled a total of 7,555 memory cards or flashcards deployed in Metro Manila, which were supposed to be used in the May 10 elections.

Comelec: Pacquiao can run

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division has dismissed the disqualification case filed against boxing champion Manny Pacquiao by his rival in the Sarangani congressional race.

In a decision dated April 29, the division chaired by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, said Roy Chiongbian’s claim that Pacquiao was a resident of this city and not Sarangani province had no basis.

Chiongbian had cited Pacquiao’s businesses and real properties in this city as proof he lived here.

In its decision, the Comelec admitted that the boxing icon’s “transfer of his voter’s registration from Lagao, General Santos City, to Kiamba, Sarangani, on Dec. 15, 2008, by itself is not sufficient to prove that he has abandoned his former residence.”

But it said that Pacquiao’s “various acts and utterances even before his transfer of his voter’s registration and thereafter would indubitably show that respondent has completely abandoned his former residence.”

Pacquiao’s camp said the boxer, who is making a second stab at politics after losing the South Cotabato congressional race in 2007, was elated by the decision.

Chiongbian, scion of a powerful political and shipping family, filed the case against Pacquiao after the pugilist’s camp had sought his [Chiongbian’s] disqualification also on the grounds of non-residency.

The Comelec dismissed the petition but the People’s Champ Movement filed an appeal.

Early this week, the Comelec en banc ruled with finality and upheld its previous ruling that Chiongbian was a resident of Sarangani.

Government prosecutors in Sarangani, meanwhile, junked Friday the charges filed against five supporters of Pacquiao who were linked to the supposed ambush of a town mayor last week.

COMELEC Precint Finder

Comelec: No national election results in 48 hours

In the automated elections on May 10, the mindset is that the winners would be known in a jiffy.

Well, not exactly.

Results will be posted pronto in real time as they are spewed out by a computing machine on a website, to be announced later, but these will be from each one of the 76,000 precincts nationwide.

You’ll have to do the addition yourself to know what’s up.

After saying again and again that the results of the automated election system (AES)—meaning contest outcomes—will be known within 48 hours, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday said for the first time that in fact this was unlikely to happen.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, speaking at a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap), said the poll body was not required to add up the results of the precinct voting or to provide a running tally on the website.

“We’ll provide the precinct data. That’s more than we’ve ever done before,” Jimenez said.

It doesn’t compute

Alfredo Pascual, convenor of AES Watch, said that the data from the individual precincts, without any summation, would not be of much use considering the sheer number of candidates.

“Try adding that up,” said Pascual. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

He also pointed out the possibility that around 30 percent of the counting machines might encounter glitches, as the Comelec itself has confirmed. In which case, he said, a manual count would have to be done.

Random audit

In addition, Pascual said that before the proclamation of winners, a “random manual audit” would be undertaken by the board of election inspectors.

This means that in each legislative district, one precinct will be selected and the results there will be manually tabulated, totaled and compared with the automated count to check its accuracy.

Mechanics of this exercise have yet to be hammered out with barely three weeks before election day.

Cesar Flores, spokesperson for Smartmatic-TIM, said the company, as part of its P7.2-billion contract with the Comelec, will make available the website where the results from the precincts will be posted as they come in.

Website for precinct results

Flores, in an interview with the Inquirer, said the website will be announced a few days before the elections.

On the website for the 2008 Venezuelan elections, the company showed consolidated results, Flores said, but the Comelec had refused to put consolidated results on its website to discourage trending while the proclamation of national winners is pending.

The Comelec, he said, does not want to be accused of overstepping the duties of the Congress, which counts and proclaims the winners of the presidential and vice presidential races.

Jimenez said that the Comelec would announce the results of its tally after the canvassing at the municipal and provincial levels are completed, which is expected to be about two to three days after the elections. But the Comelec is only authorized to proclaim the winners up to the senatorial level, he said.

The proclamation of the president and vice president would have to be done by Congress, which is tasked with canvassing the results and which would only convene on May 30.

At the moment, Jimenez said, the poll body’s plan is to just post the precinct results on the website, whose name would only be disclosed on the eve of the elections for security purposes.

The data on the website will play an important part, he said, because it provides transparency and helps in fact-checking.

Additional burden

When asked why the poll body would not sum up the results, Jimenez said the Comelec was not required to do so. “As far as transparency is concerned, all of the data is there.”

He also said that if the results of the summation would be included on website, there would have to be a canvassing program included on it. This would be an additional burden for the site, he added.

The absence of an official summation of the election results on the website raised concerns that those who would be counting the votes based on the website data might come up with different figures and create confusion.

Henrietta de Villa, chair of the Comelec’s citizens arm Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), said her group and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) would meet to discuss the possibility of conducting a joint tally of the election results.

‘Democratized’ counting

De Villa also said that with the election data made available to the public at once, the holding of parallel counts had been “democratized.”

“Everyone can do the count,” she said in the same Focap forum, adding that the PPCRV itself would be conducting an internal parallel count.

Overseas absentee voting starts April 10

Filipinos abroad can start voting for nationally elected candidates here on April 10 until May 10 when the country holds the first automated polls, an official of the Commission on Elections said Thursday.

The Comelec and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will coordinate for the overseas absentee voting (OAV) and the first automated OAV in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Absentee voters can only vote for president, vice president, senator and partylist to be written on the OAV ballot form measuring 14 by 4.5 inches, said Comelec Commissioner Armando Velasco, concurrent head of the committee on OAV during the joint congressional committee meeting on automated elections.

Absentee voters may cast their ballots from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (the time of the host country) on April 10. For the succeeding days, however, voting will start at 8 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. (Philippine time). Foreign posts may adopt a flexible eight-hour schedule, according to an OAV resolution.

There are 589,830 overseas absentee voters, including 224, 884 new OAV registrants who enlisted between February and August, said Velasco.

Comelec has started sealing of the 33 poll machines to be used for the pilot automated polls in Hong Kong and Singapore, which recorded the highest registration of absentee voters at 95,355and 31,853, respectively.

“The combined voters in Hong Kong and Singapore are equal to 21 percent of the total overseas voters,” said Velasco.

Another 140,832 Filipinos abroad in 47 countries will vote by mail. They were sent official ballots and other election paraphernalia in mailing packets, which should be filled up by the voter upon receipt and returned to the post of the country where they would be canvassed, said Velasco.

For the rest of the half a million OAVs who would cast their votes in person, they must present a valid passport or identification with name, signature, and photograph to the special board of election inspectors (SBEIs).

In the absence of IDs, a voter will be asked to take an oath on his identity in the presence of an SBEI member. If a voter fails to prove his identity, he will not be allowed to vote.

Foreign Affairs undersecretary Rafael Seguis said personnel from 93 Philippine consulate offices abroad were ready to handle the three modes of voting for this year's OAV: the pilot automated polls in Hong Kong and Singapore, voting by mail, and voting in person.

Seguis also urged absentee voters in Hong Kong to proceed to Bayanihan centers on weekdays to avoid long lines for voting on Sundays.

Comelec admits error in UV markings on ballots

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has admitted an error in the ultraviolet (UV) markings printed on ballots for the May 10 polls, but denied a report that the wrong UV ink was used in the printing of the ballots for the May 10 elections.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the UV markings printed on the ballots was a bit displaced because of the high-speed printing process.

He said the UV marking overlapped with the other printed characters in the ballot, thus making the markings unreadable by the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

This was confirmed by Ramon Casiple, chairman of the Consortium on Electoral Reform, and a member of the Comelec Advisory Council.

The printing problem concerning the UV markings has forced the Comelec to forego the use of the PCOS’ UV mark-reading function.

The Comelec said members of the board of election inspectors (BEI) will instead use UV lamps to make sure that the ballots are genuine.

Larrazabal assured that the ballots carry several security features other than the UV markings, such as precinct-specific bar codes.

Casiple, however, said the use of UV lamps means more work for the teachers. He added that this could also be easily forgotten as the use of UV lamp was not included in the list of General Instructions.

He added that security bar codes can be copied. Ballots with copied bar codes can easily pass through the PCOS machines with de-activated UV mark-reading functions, he said.

Larrazabal earlier would not confirm or deny that the UV ink supplied by Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. (TIM) was wrong and refused to divulge the explanation given by the joint venture.

“There’s a number of things and let’s wait for the en banc. For me, what is important is there is still a way to authenticate the UV ink. The ballot itself is authenticated by the PCOS machines,” he said.

Asked why the Comelec opted to use portable UV reader instead of replacing the UV ink, Larrazabal said that would have set a bad precedent.

“If you do that, people will come up with so many excuses to invalidate this ballot and that ballot. Right now, we are working on a timeline to ensure that we have ballots on Election Day,” he said

Comelec warns local bets as campaign period begins

THE CAMPAIGN PERIOD FOR local positions officially starts Friday, with a warning from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that rules will be strictly enforced to ensure fair elections in May.

Lawyer Michael Dioneda, director III of the Comelec National Capital Region (NCR), said those charged with an election offense face imprisonment and the risk of being disqualified from the race.

Among those considered election offenses are vote buying and issues of residency, citizenship, violating the three-term limit rule and the posting of posters and other election paraphernalia outside Comelec designated common poster areas.

“That’s a usual problem during the campaign season. The candidates and their supporters love to place their election materials outside the common poster areas,” Dioneda said.

He added: “I guess it’s like a psychological warfare strategy among them. They think that the more posters they have, the more it would boost their chances of winning.”

Dioneda, however, stressed that the Comelec is bent on ensuring a level playing field for candidates during the campaign period.

Regulations

“We will be strict in enforcing campaign rules, especially regulations regarding the posting of campaign materials,” he said.

The common poster areas identified by the Comelec include barangay halls, public markets, sports complex or basketball courts and public plazas.

Candidates may post campaign advertisements in private buildings or places, only if the owners give their consent, Dioneda said. He added that posters are strictly prohibited in public school buildings and on trees, shrines, electric posts, wires as well as other places outside the common poster areas.

“Any concerned citizen who sees illegally placed posters may file a complaint against the candidate for illegal campaigning,” he said.

Apart from identifying designated areas, Dioneda reminded candidates to make sure that their campaign materials follow the measurements set by the Comelec in Resolution No. 8758, the rules and regulations implementing the Fair Elections Practices Act.

Posters made of cloth, paper or cardboard should not exceed 2 feet by 3 feet in size. Streamers, which Dioneda said should only be used during rallies or other outdoor activities by the candidates, should not go beyond the mandated size of 3 feet by 8 feet.

The Comelec official also warned bets against campaigning during Holy Week.

Provision

“There’s a provision in the Fair Election Act disallowing politicians from campaigning during big events such as Holy Week.”

“But you know how it is with us Filipinos,” he said. “Some candidates join processions and then wave at people. They also visit churches. But in deference to the observation of the Holy Week, they should not engage in outright campaigning.”

“We will regulate all their activities starting today but we also encourage the public to report to us if they see such violations,” he said.

Comelec records show that a total of 132 candidates are running for Congress; 69 for mayor; 64 for vice mayor; and 974 for councilors in Metro Manila, which consists of 16 cities and one municipality.

He noted that the “unusually higher” number of candidates, particularly for councilors this year. “And most of them are young,” Dioneda added. “Maybe we can also attribute this to a renewed interest in the coming automated elections.”

He expressed confidence that the new voting system would be implemented smoothly.

“This time, our confidence level is high because the teachers have been undergoing training already, and our voters’ education drive is doing well,” he said.

Dioneda also assured the public that measures are in place to thwart election-related violence.

“We’re in close coordination with the police and the military. We meet regularly to assess the peace and order situation in the different areas of Metro Manila,” he said. “We try to identify areas where we should focus or where police visibility or checkpoints should be intensified.”

Assessment

According to him, the list of candidates in a particular area helps them in their assessment of the political situation.

“We will concentrate on areas where there are many candidates, or in places where the race is expected to be heated. We expect the situation to be peaceful in areas where there are not a lot of candidates vying for posts, In the NCR, there’s just a lot of political noise but almost no violence, except for sporadic cases,” Dioneda said.

While he called on the voters to be vigilant, he urged the candidates to follow election rules and help in voters’ education.

The campaign period ends on May 8, two days before election day.

Comelec trains priests on new voting system

About 200 diocesan and religious priests from the Cebu Archdiocese were challenged to teach their parishioners how to help ensure clean and honest May 2010 elections.

In a forum at the Betania Retreat House in Lahug, Cebu City, the priests, including Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, received instructions about the new system of voting so that they could relay these to parishioners.

Rene Buac, Commission on Elections Central Visayas (Comelec-7) regional director, conducted the training of the priests.

Vidal said he does not have any problem with poll automation but only about the conduct of defeated candidates.

“I do not have problem with the system. I do not have problem with the voters. My problem is the (candidates') acceptance of defeat,” Vidal told Buac.

“In some parishes, the participants understandably have some doubts because of the technology and prevailing atmosphere of distrust caused by past experience of electoral fraud in our country's political history,” said Vidal.

Buac, however, told the archbishop that this was a problem of character which cannot be solved through automated elections. The director challenged the clergy to help them solve such problems by talking with their parishioners.

Buac has repeatedly reminded the clergy that Comelec does not have the sole responsibility for the attainment of “clean and honest” elections.

“We are all in this together. It is the voter himself who can guarantee a clean election. For example, illegal posters. Some would ask the Comelec why they have not removed the posters. I tell them, you are the one who saw it why didn't you remove it yourself. Why do you have to blame it on the Comelec and Philippine National Police (PNP). We were not the ones who violated it,” Buac said.

“It is not only the Cebu-Citizens Involvement and Maturation for People's Empowerment and Liberation (C-Cimpel) or the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) who should be responsible. Everyone should do their minor roles to achieve clean and honest election,” he added.

Buac said one of the small things a responsible voter can contribute towards successful elections is finding out his polling precinct and making a list of his choice of candidates before going out to cast his vote. He said this will speed up the election process.

Finding one’s polling precinct can be done online through comelec.gov.ph or, for those who do not have Internet connection, by going to an election officer to ask for their polling precinct.

Buac suggested that the voters visit their election officers two weeks before election day to know their polling stations. He said it will be an additional hassle to the election officials to give the precinct number to the voters on the election day itself.

Preparing a list of chosen candidates will also cut voting time.

Buac said that the average voting time is only three minutes based on the mock elections in February.

Upon receiving the ballot, the voters are encouraged to check if these are not tampered with or have marks that might cause the Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) to reject these.

“See to it that the ballot is clear because that's the only time you can change your ballot and that is before you shade it. Make sure that it is clean,” Buac told the clergy.

Vidal said that instead of focusing on doubts and fears on the implementation of the automated election system, the challenge is to make sure that the votes of the people will be safe.