Comelec vows same-day poll results

Citing the benefits of automated polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Thursday that the public will instantly know the results on the same day.

“Are we going to know who are the winners on the same night of Election Day? Definitely,” Comelec chairperson George Garcia told reporters in Filipino during their visit at the office of DITO Telecommunity in Taguig.

"We should know the results that same night so that we're more prepared — no violence, no theft like this, no terrorism. The results should be known; everything should be received at the central server," Garcia added.

The Comelec earlier announced that it would launch a “sent-to-all” feature as it retires the transparency server.

Poll watchdogs and media organizations as well as minority and majority political parties will be given access to the feature.

DITO is one of the telcos tapped by the joint venture of iOne Resources Inc. and Ardent Networks Inc. for the Secure Electronic Transmission Services (SETS) that would be used in the next year’s elections.

Around 120,000 Smart SIM Cards, 60,000 from DITO, and 60,000 from Globe will be used as primary and backup for the transmission of election results, according to Comelec.

"In the whole Philippines, Smart isn't strong everywhere, and neither is Globe. There are areas where Smart is weak, Globe is weak, but DITO is strong," Garcia explained.

Meanwhile, there will be 7,000 units that will tap Starlink’s internet services.

"In areas with little to no signal, we will use Starlink," he added.

The poll body earlier said SpaceX’s Starlink services will be used to report results in “far-flung” areas of the Philippines, where internet signal is an issue.