No stopping Congress canvass

MANILA, Philippines – The canvassing for president and vice president in Congress will proceed as scheduled.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista said yesterday that there would be no systems audit for vice presidential votes despite the petition of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 

Bautista noted the Comelec met on Monday and they resolved to “defer any action” on Marcos’ petition for a systems audit of the automated election system (AES) used in the May 9 polls. 

“The Comelec en banc had deliberated on Monday… and the unanimous vote is to defer action on the request because of three reasons,” he said at a forum in Manila. 

He added there would be no systems audit until Congress has completed the canvassing of votes for president and vice president, and until the criminal cases filed by Marcos’ camp against Smartmatic and Comelec personnel have been resolved. 

“There are concerns that the canvassing has just started in Congress which, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, is also mandated to proclaim the winning president and vice president. We are wary about what could be the effects if we allow this audit by a particular candidate,” he explained. 

Bautista added, “The power to proclaim the president and vice president is with Congress. The Comelec is concerned with the (elections for the) Senate and party-list only. So in deference (to Congress), if we are to conduct an audit, we might affect the work of Congress.”  

Marcos wanted his team of information technology experts to do the system audit to check the effects on the AES of the alteration of the hash code of the transparency server being used in the quick count. 

He complained that he was overtaken by his rival, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, by more than 200,000 votes in the quick count only after the hash code was changed by Smartmatic and Comelec. 

According to Bautista, the third reason is that political parties, poll watchdogs and other stakeholders were already given seven months to review the hash code of the AES.

But the poll chief said they would welcome any interested third party to conduct an evaluation of the AES, citing the Department Science and Technology or the multi-sector Comelec Advisory Council.

“Transparency is very important to us. This is why we are open to a disinterested, non-partisan group to conduct the systems audit. If they want to do so, we are open to it,” he added. 

He said that this third-party audit could be done as soon as the Comelec figures out the scope and methodology of the audit.

UNA calls for forensic probe

The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) asked yesterday the Comelec to conduct a forensic investigation of its election management system (ESM) amid claims of electoral fraud in the vice presidential race.

“We request that a forensic examination of the EMS for the May 9, 2016 presidential elections be conducted by the Comelec in line with real transparency and protecting the integrity of the automated elections and (elections) in the future,” UNA secretary general JV Bautista said in his letter to the commission. 

UNA chairman Vice President Jejomar Binay placed fourth in the May 9 presidential elections based on unofficial count.

The opposition party asked for a probe following reports that Smartmatic, the EMS provider, breached the system. There were also reported discrepancies between the certificates of canvass and the voters’ receipts.

Bautista also said there were questionable data on the “under votes” based on the printed receipts received by those who had filled up a complete slate.

The EMS imports pre-election data files like geographical subdivisions, voting jurisdictions, number of registered voters, candidate details and information on the members of the board of election inspectors. 

It also defines and prepares ballot templates for each town and city nationwide.

The EMS likewise creates location-specific configuration files for the voting machines and canvassing centers and generates report templates for the election results. 

Bautista said Smartmatic, on the night of the elections, admitted inserting a new script or computer command in the transparency server. It claimed that the change was a cosmetic one and meant to change the character of “?” to “ñ” in some candidates’ names.

He said there were also discrepancies in the results between the certificates of votes by the provincial board of canvassers and those generated by the canvassing and consolidation system (CCS) in Ilocos Sur, Zamboanga del Sur and Nueva Ecija.

Bautista also noted that there had been reports of some voters’ receipts that did not match the votes cast by voters, as well as an irregular number of under votes for some positions.

The UNA official asked the poll body to give the party access to the following to ensure transparency. First, the list of IP addresses and MAC addresses of all devices including servers that were connected to the network during the elections. 

Second, the dump of the log servers both of the central and transparency server that compose the transactions of all devices connected to the central and transparency server from 5 p.m. of May 9, 2016 up to 5 p.m. of May 11, 2016. 

Third, a network diagram of the AES of the May 9, 2016 presidential elections.

“We stress the importance of credible elections as a foundation of a stable democracy, and with the thrust of transparency, we need to reinforce the public’s confidence in the elections,” Bautista said. 

He said the party also intends to conduct an examination under the supervision of the Comelec.  – With Marvin Sy, Helen Flores