The Halalang Marangal 2022 wants the printed official ballots subjected to a 100 percent audit by qualified auditors.
The group said this alarmed that the printing was done without the presence of accredited observers nor citizens’ arms groups.
"We see this issue on the ballot printing at the National Printing Office and in the Comelec’s Sta. Rosa warehouse without the presence of accredited citizens’ arms or observation groups as very alarming, especially as citizens arms groups were always invited to these activities in previous elections," the group said in a statement.
For this reason, the Halalang Marangal, together with all concerned parties, asked that the printed ballots be "subject to a 100 percent audit by qualified auditors who are knowledgeable of the ballot’s specifications and security markings."
"This is to erase any doubts that the printing did not follow or violate agreed specifications, but are accurate and complete in information, properly counted, and with excess or incorrect forms being subject to verifiable and proper disposal procedures," it said.
Halalang Marangal also recommended that all formatted SD cards be audited by the IT teams who attended the source code review.
"More importantly, we recommend that those who instigated and carried out these acts should be held accountable and liable in accordance with the law," the group said.
"These corrective actions done in partnership with its accredited stakeholders and even the public, should help Comelec in gaining the confidence of the citizenry and international observers back," it added.
"On behalf of the Filipino voters, we hope and pray that the Comelec heeds these requests to uphold the integrity of the electoral process this coming May," said the group.
Halalang Marangal 2022 (HM2022) is a coalition of 20 faith-based groups led by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace (CBCP-ECSA-JP) that seeks to promote clean, honest, accurate, responsible and transparent elections for 2022.