Comelec urged anew to conduct swift manual audit of poll results

Even though the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has thumbed down the idea, Liberal Party officials on Tuesday insisted that the poll body conduct the random manual audit of poll results right after the May 10 elections. The supposed absence of a clear plan regarding the conduct of the audit was one of the "serious lapses or inadequacies" in the Comelec's preparations for the automated polls, LP officials said at a press conference in Cubao, Quezon City. Section 24 of Republic Act 9369 or the law on poll automation requires a random manual audit to be conducted in one precinct per congressional district in each province and city. "This is the only way to verify the accuracy of the [Precinct Count Optical Scan] results, to conduct the [audit] Hanggang sa ngayon wala pang maliwanag na instruction o plano ang Comelec kung paano isasagawa yung random manual audit," said LP campaign manager Butch Abad. "Ang aming proposal, gawin natin yung audit immediately after the transmission of the votes (Our proposal is to conduct the audit imemdiately after the transmission of votes)," said Abad, adding that the LP wants the audit done before the proclamation of winners. Comelec chairman Jose Melo had earlier thumbed down the idea of conducting the random manual audit before the declaration of winners, saying it will only cause unnecessary delays. [See: Comelec chief: no audit before poll winners are proclaimed] Comelec undecided yet On Tuesday, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal told reporters that the Comelec has yet to decide when they will conduct the audit. But Abad said the audit can be done in less than two days, adding that 1,000 ballot — the maximum number of votes in one precinct — can be manually audited in 30 hours. "What is the hindrance to undertaking audit review shortly after election itself?" said LP vice presidential candidate Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas II. For his part, LP standard bearer Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III said the lack of plans regarding the conduct of the RMA, the manual verification of the validity of the ballots that will be used, and the "unfair" listing of names of presidential candidates on the ballots because some ballots still contained the name of disqualified presidential aspirant Vetellano Acosta, among others, were all alarming indications of the Comelec's lack of preparedness. "Maasahan ba natin na magiging maayos ang darating na halalan, gayong marami pa ring problema ang kauna-unahang automated election sa bansa na di pa natugunan (Can we expect the upcoming elections to be orderly when there are still many problems in the country's first automated elections that have not been addressed)?" Aquino said. Larrazabal had earlier said the votes for Acosta will just be considered as stray votes because removing his name and reprinting the ballots would mean having to redo the source code for the PCOS machines and canvassing system, which he said could delay the elections by months. — with Kim Tan/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV