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9
May
DO NOT DELAY PUBLICATION OF AUTOMATED VOTE TALLIES FOR NATIONAL CANDIDATES — JOEY III
Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino senatorial candidate Joey De Venecia is
questioning the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to wait for 20% of precincts nationwide to transmit vote data before publishing its initial tally of votes for the national candidates on its website.
“This will defeat the very purpose of the automated system having
real-time capability to send out the precinct level results and ensure the transparency, speed and accuracy of the system,” De Venecia said.
“If the speedy publication of the initial tally of votes for national
candidates is delayed,” De Venecia said, “we will then be besieged by so-called exit polls from unofficial and possibly partisan sources along with untraceable vote result leaks.”
The PMP spokesman on poll automation said “if this happens, the very credibility of the official tallies will come under question with people asking whether these could have been massaged to favor certain parties or candidates.”
“We must remind the COMELEC that one reason why the credibility of certain citizen election watchdogs became tainted in the 2004 elections was when it was revealed that they held back posting election tallies from bailiwicks of the late Fernando Poe Jr and gave prominence to the votes for other aspirants,” De Venecia said.
