Comelec disputes early transmission claim in 2022 election

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has debunked new allegations over its early transmission of election returns (ER) in the May 2022 national and local elections.

In a statement, the Comelec insisted it is impossible for vote counting machines (VCM) to be connected to foreign or illegal devices.

“Such is not possible because a VCM can only connect and transmit using the digital certificates previously validated and authenticated by the election network and application,” the Comelec stressed in response to former Information and Communication Technology Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr.

Rio claimed that 7,975 VCMs transmitted ERs from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on election day before being received by the Comelec Transparency Server.

His allegations came after Comelec published the election’s transmission logs from telecommunication firms Globe Telecom and Smart Communication on its official website.

Rio previously claimed there was a secret “man-in-the-middle” device used and that the elections were rigged and manipulated.

The Comelec noted that even the consolidated canvassing system was already connected to a firewall that renders impossible any transmission before 7:30 p.m.

He added that the volume of traffic indicated in the telco log refers not to election data, but to network data needed to monitor the status of the SD-WAN device or software-defined wide area network.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia renewed his proposal for a public manual recount of ballot boxes in selected precincts nationwide to settle all of Rio’s allegations.

He added that Rio could choose the precincts and ballot boxes to be opened and recounted.