“We are calling to suspend the proclamation of winning senatorial candidates until the allegation of fraud is resolved,” according to Fr. Edwin Gariguez, NASSA/Caritas Philippines Executive Secretary. The national social action arm official also said that “we demand for an independent and impartial investigation of the alleged fraud and manipulation of automated canvassing by the Commission on Elections and SMARTMATIC!”
The bold call was presented after reports of possible fraud were received by the office, especially on back-to-back, 7-hour transmission delays due to substandard SD cards, major technical glitches involving the vote counting machines (VCMs) and transparency servers. In 2016, only 188 VCMs were reported to malfunction nationwide. In 2019, this number skyrocketed to 400-600 VCMs.
We support the call of UPLB Computer Science Related Organizations for clarity and transparency in the 2019 National Elections, asserting that “the public deserves to be informed and enlightened regarding the issues circulating the election results, specifically the errors on transmitting the results from provinces, the dip in the transparency survey results, and the ‘Java error’ found in the system.” The main issue is the non-transparent counting of votes, including serious questions with the so-called transparency server.
Earlier, the Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) stated that “unless glaring vulnerabilities of the automated election system and the non-compliance of the critical provisions of RA 9369 are resolved, the 2019 elections will create credibility issues.”
According to the election watchdog, major constraints left unresolved by COMELEC and SMARTMATIC are: 1] absence of public access to election data, 2] lack of comprehensive and credible source code review, and 3] the lack of digital signatures.
COMELEC, since September 2018, has initiated 82 enhancements of the automated machines to ensure integrity and accuracy of the 2019 mid-term elections.
“However, we have seen how some of these enhancements still failed during the May 13 elections resulting to the alarming perception of election fraud,” quipped Fr. Gariguez.
“Therefore, it is but imperative for the COMELEC to postpone the proclamation of the winners for the senatorial race until the alleged fraud-tainted results are validated and cleared,” concluded Fr. Gariguez.
