Smartmatic explains 150M voters in canvassing report

An official of Smartmatic, one-half of the consortium that automated this year’s elections, on Thursday said computation mistake was the reason why the number of registered voters in the canvassing of votes was excessively higher than in the official Commission on Elections (Comelec) record. In a chance interview with reporters, Smartmatic-Asia president Cesar Flores said the computer added the number of registered voters coming from three servers, in the process also multiplying the number of voters by three. An original copy of the national canvass report by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which is sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, initially showed that there were 153,902,003 registered voters in the Philippines—way higher than 50.7 million voters in the country and 589,830 abroad. "The one that prints the reports pulled the three numbers and printed them out as the number of registered voters," Flores said. He noted, however, that the problem could not affect the canvassing of the votes. "That never affected the actual positions or the percentage [of votes]... it would have just reduced the turnout (rate)," he said. He likewise said that the problem was pointed out by some political parties during canvassing on Wednesday and was corrected right away. "(Now ) the real number comes out," he said. As of late Wednesday, 14.49 percent of the certificates of canvass have been received by the Comelec. — Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV