No audit before proclamation, says Comelec exec

The random manual audit in the May 10 automated elections will be conducted after the proclamation of the winners, a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official said on Thursday. Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said objections are usually raised during the audit, which could delay the proclamation if it will be done prior to the declaration of winners. “It might defeat the purpose of poll automation," Sarmiento told reporters in an interview. Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal on Wednesday said they would be increasing the precincts to be audited in May. Section 24 of Republic Act 9369 requires a random manual audit to be conducted in one precinct per congressional district in each province and city, but prodded by various groups, the Comelec decided to increase this to five precincts per legislative district. Sarmiento said conducting the audit before proclamation does not mean that concerned parties may not contest possible suspicious election results. He cited Comelec Resolution 8804, which discusses the rules for electoral protests. The resolution, however, says that candidates, political parties, and party-list groups can only question documents that they deem to be suspicious — such as election results — and challenge the results before the proclamation of winners if there is an "illegal composition of the board of canvassers (BOC)" and "illegal proceedings of the BOC." Illegal composition of the BOC would mean that at least one of its members does not possess legal qualifications and appointments, including the information technology capable person required to assist the BOC. Illegal proceedings of the BOC may be declared when the canvassing is a "sham" or "mere ceremony" where the results are manipulated and pre-determined due to "precipitate" or unannounced canvassing, terrorism, lack of sufficient notice to the members of the BOC, and improper venue. Meanwhile, Sarmiento said the poll body would not be conducting a parallel manual count as recommended by some watchdogs. "Parallel manual count is not in the law, the law speaks of random manual audit but it doesn't speak of parallel manual count (but) actually pareho lang naman sila eh (they're basically the same)," he said. — Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV