The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has finished the conduct of the Random Manual Audit for the 2022 polls ahead of schedule.
The poll body said the RMA ended on June 19 or 34 days after it commenced on May 11.
"On behalf of the entire Random Manual Audit Committee-including the civil society organizations, the Philippine Statistics Authority, and your Commission-as well as the teachers who served as RMA teams, I am happy to report that we finished ahead of schedule," Comelec Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, Commissioner-in-Charge of the RMA Committee, said in a statement on Monday, June 20.
"The law gives us a maximum of 45 days to finish the audit, but with the dedication and cooperation of all parties involved, it took us only 34 days. We finished early and we finished strong," she added.
Ferolino revealed that as of 4 p.m. Sunday, the accuracy rate stands at 99.95928 percent.
"To the Filipino electorate, it is my hope that we were able to successfully carry out the principal objective of the random manual audit as mandated by law-which is to verify whether the vote counting machines used in the May 9, 2022 elections read and counted your sacred votes accurately," she said.
Ferolino then thanked everyone who were involved in the audit.
"To every single person involved in the audit, from the teachers to the verifiers to the supervisors and security personnel, who spent long days and late nights, allow me to convey my sincerest thanks and congratulations to all of you. Election day may have long passed, but this important work you have accomplished will have a far-reaching significance in succeeding electoral exercises. I humbly urge you to be proud of this noble feat," she said.
On Monday, the Comelec kicked off the reverse deployment of ballot boxes subject of the RMA to their respective points of origin.
It was May 10, 2022, when the Comelec randomly selected at least one clustered precinct in every legislative district nationwide. It was publicly held at the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) in PICC, Pasay City.
The random selection yielded a total of 757 clustered precincts, representing one ballot box each, which were to be subject of the RMA.
Out of 757, a total of 746 ballot boxes were audited. Some ballot boxes were no longer subjected to audit, while 27 are still subjected for further verification of the Technological Evaluation Committee (TEC) such as the mislabeled ballot boxes.