The Commission on Elections (Comelec) insisted Friday, May 13, that they have been transparent in all their proceedings amid allegations of electoral fraud by some groups.
Comelec acting spokesperson Director John Rex Laudiangco said that even poll watch groups and international observers were vouching for the credibility of the recent automated elections.
“Right from the start we alredy showed to everybody all our proceedings are transparent just to show to the people that what we are doing is accordance with law and rules,” Laudiangco said in a press briefing.
We stick performing our functions within bounds of law and rules. We could proudly state na wala pong dayaan na naganap (no electoral fraud happened). The credibility of the elections is there,” he added.
However, poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said there was a 100-percent match rate in the manual validation of 16,820 election returns that it processed so far.
Experts from the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Statistics, independent analytics group OCTA Research, and poll watchdog National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) also debunked cheating allegations pertaining to the supposed 68:32 vote ratio in favor of leading presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. over his closest rival, Vice President Leni Robredo.
Further, United States Department spokesperson Ned Price had said that the automated elections in the Philippines “have been conducted in line with international standards and without significant incident.”
The Comelec en band continued the fourth day of the canvassing of votes for the senatorial and partylist elections on Friday at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
A total of 121 out of 173 certificates of canvass (COCs) have already been canvassed by the Comelec so far.