Comelec says no to petition for a parallel manual count

(Update 4:46 PM) The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has rejected a petition that would have required teachers and election inspectors at the precinct level to manually count all votes cast for president, vice president, congressman, governor, and mayor. Conducting a full parallel manual count would make the elections more vulnerable and open to fraud, defeating the purpose of automating the electoral system in the first place, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said, citing the poll body’s en banc unanimous decision. Comelec Resolution 8834, which was promulgated Thursday, said that the parallel manual count is a “regressive step" into the final preparations for the automated elections. However, if the hand count of one percent or more of the ballots incurs a discrepancy with the count of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine assigned to that precinct, then a full manual count of all candidates will be conducted. The mere existence of “disagreement" between the hand count and the electronic count should not automatically be interpreted as proof of the inaccuracy of the count, the Commission said. “The beneficiality of the parallel manual count is limited only to proving the existence of a discrepancy; it does not, by itself, prove the invalidity of the electronic count," it said in the resolution. A hand count of the ballots will open up the possibility of errors in tallying, as well as provide an “excellent opportunity" for fraudulent acts, such as the deliberate shading of additional ovals or the defacing of the ballots’ security marks. “Scrapping the electronic count and canvass in favor of the hand count and manual canvassing will likewise open up the possibility of the return old modes of cheating — particularly dagdag-bawas and the resurrection of sleeping Garcis," it said. Unnecessary process Aside from the downsides of implementing the proposal, Jimenez said the conduct of a parallel manual count also does not have "any legal basis." “The random manual audit (RMA) is the only legally sanctioned mechanism for validating the PCOS count. The parallel count, therefore, does not have any legal basis," said the poll body in the resolution. Section 24 of Republic Act 9369 requires a RMA to be conducted in one precinct per congressional district in each province and city. But after much prodding from groups, the poll body decided to increase this to five precincts per legislative district, which is 1,145 precincts. Jimenez added that the parallel manual count has the "exact same validation function" as the RMA required by the law. “A discrepancy encountered in a parallel manual count almost automatically results in the scrapping of the electronic count altogether, whereas a discrepancy encountered during the RMA will result first ion a determination of root causes, followed by a manual count to validate the electronic count," said the poll body. The spokesman said they expect to issue the guidelines for the RMA by the end of the week. Not an easy decision The poll body did not base its decision on the difficulty and the cost of conducting a parallel manual count, Jimenez said. “The decision was not made lightly. The Commission has repeatedly said that one cannot argue about the cost of democracy, nor can the difficulty of doing a necessary act ever be a strong argument for not performing that act," said the poll body in its decision. Proposals to conduct the count indicate that the process can be done within five hours for P300 million. Those who argue that the parallel count should be done simply because it can be done easily and cheaply “betray their lack of understanding of the ramifications of their demand," the poll body said. The decision was also affected by the fact that supposed possible discrepancies discovered during the parallel count could delay the proclamation of the President-elect before the 30th of June, the Comelec said. Appeal Jimenez said he expects that the people behind the calls for a manual count would respect their decision. “I think they are reasonable men. I think they will understand that the RMA will be sufficient," he said. But farmer-fisherfolk group Alyansa Agrikultura chairman Ernesto Ordoñez, one of the proponents of the parallel manual count proposal, said that they can “modify" some details stated in their initial position. In a letter to Comelec chairman Melo late Thursday, he said that they will no longer follow the one-percent threshold difference between the manual and automated vote account in determining whether there may be fraud or systemic distortion. “We find merit in changing our initial proposal and finding out the root cause of the discrepancy in the counts, and take the appropriate action to resolve the issue," he said. He likewise said he hopes that the poll body would give them time to “jointly formulate" a plan to be able to have a “win-win situation." Earlier, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said that the matter could still be appealed to the Supreme Court, though he thinks that there may not enough time to do so. Last week, independent presidential candidate Sen. Maria Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal and several members of Alyansa Agrikultura threatened to go on a hunger strike until the poll body decides to conduct a parallel manual count. On Monday, members of the influential Makati Business Club and the Philippine Bar Association had also asked the Comelec to conduct a manual count of votes for at least three positions in precincts nationwide. At a forum Tuesday, former Comelec chair Christian Monsod said he was in favor of conducting a parallel manual count on May 10. - LBG, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV