Garcia also urged candidates and political parties to use closed-circuit television cameras to monitor areas where ballots, equipment and other election materials are stored.
COMELEC Chairman George Erwin Garcia has signed a MOA with representatives of PPCRV, (NAMFREL, DepEd, and PSA who will help the poll body conduct random manual audit for the upcoming BARMM polls.
Jeffrey Damicog
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has enlisted its two accredited citizens’ arms and two government agencies to help audit the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary elections on 14 September.
Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia on Friday signed a memorandum of agreement with representatives of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, Department of Education and Philippine Statistics Authority for the random manual audit.
“This will show whether the machines counted the votes correctly and, at the same time, whether the system and process we are implementing are correct,” Garcia said in Filipino.
He said all automated counting machines had undergone testing and source code reviews and had received the necessary certifications. But he said the random manual audit would provide the final check on the automated results.
“The final statement will come from the random manual audit,” Garcia said, warning that a significant discrepancy between the automated count and the manual audit could undermine the elections. “Then our election would be meaningless,” he said.
CCTV monitoring
Garcia also urged candidates and political parties to use closed-circuit television cameras to monitor areas where ballots, equipment and other election materials are stored.
“This is not prohibited,” Garcia said, adding that Comelec rules do not bar political parties or candidates from installing CCTVs in storage areas to ensure that election materials are not handled or moved without authorization.
He also encouraged poll watchers from watchdog groups, political parties and candidates to monitor the storage of election materials before they are distributed to precincts.
“We encourage them to be in those places so they can witness the actual storage of the equipment and paraphernalia before these are distributed,” he said.
Garcia made the call amid concerns raised by some local officials over the possibility of pre-shaded ballots.
Sealed, secured
He said preventing such irregularities would be difficult because Comelec storage facilities are secured and ballot boxes are properly sealed.
“It will be difficult because the places where we keep the ballots are secure, and our ballot boxes are properly sealed,” Garcia said.
He also said security forces would be deployed at polling precincts to help protect the electoral process.
