Comelec en banc starts canvassing of votes
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc, sitting as the national board of canvassers (NBOC), officially started the canvassing of votes for the senatorial and party-list elections on Tuesday night, May 10.
Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan presided over the canvassing of votes around 7 p.m. after several areas successfully transmitted partial and complete results of the elections.
Among the regions which have transmitted results include the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR ), National Capital Region (NCR), Regions 1, 2, 3, 4A, 4B, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
There are also partial and complete transmission of results from the overseas absentee voting (OAV).
Meanwhile, Regions 9 and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have yet to transmit the results of their elections.
After receiving the transmissions, the NBOC then canvassed the votes and among the areas that were counted include the provinces of Abra, Kalinga, Apayao, Mt. Province, Benguet, Ifugao, and Malabon City.
The results of the canvassed votes of the NBOC on Tuesday night were treated as the partial and official result of the elections, and will be matched with the partial and unofficial results from its transparency server.
“These are the official counts. Ito ang kagandahan ng automated election system, ang primary na kina-canvass natin ay ang mga electronically transmitted results (This is why the automated election system is good, what we primarily canvass are the electronically transmitted results),” said Director John Rex Laudiangco, acting spokesperson of Comelec.
The results have yet to be released as of this writing.
To demonstrate the accuracy of the automated election system, Laudiangco cited the results of the elections in Malabon City.
Laudiangco said that the copy of the results from the Malabon City Board of Canvassers (CBOC), the electronically transmitted results, and the printed results at the NBOC headquarters in PICC, Pasay City “all yielded the same accurate results.”
“Pare-pareho po ang resulta and most likely ‘yung ibang counsels na present they also have copies. Tinanong po sila ‘Is there any objection?’ Have you seen any discrepancy?’ And there were no objections from all the counsels, and watchers,” Laudiangco said.
The Comelec en banc suspended its session around 9:15 p.m. and will resume the canvassing of votes around 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 11.