THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday said it will release the voting transmission logs of last year’s national and local elections to assure the public that there was no fraud in the tally.
“To erase doubts as to the transmission of the votes in the first hour after the close of polls in 2022 national and local elections, the undersigned is very much willing to provide your requested transmission logs of 20 million votes, subject to the confirmation of the commission en banc,” Comelec Chairperson George Erwin M. Garcia said in a letter on March 20.
The letter was addressed to Leonardo O. Odoño, a retired military officer who
requested the release of the transmission logs as a concerned citizen, citing doubts on the speed of the electronic dispatch during the first hour after the voting period closed.
“The commission hopes that the provision of the transmission logs will clear the controversies you stated,” Mr. Garcia said. “However, any subsequent specific questions that you may have on the transmission logs will be answered by the Comelec.”
Comelec will also provide election watchdogs and citizens’ arms with soft copies of the logs on March 23, he added.
Last week, the election body said it would replace existing equipment with newer technology after the first National Election Summit held earlier this month. Comelec will discard 98,000 vote-counting machines to make way for upgraded technology, Mr. Garcia said.
Election watchdog Kontra Daya, which translates to “against fraud” in Filipino, has called for similar reforms in the election system due to the technical blunders that occurred in the May 2022 elections.
Last year, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines urged Comelec to review the automated elections system and implement measures that would discourage members of political dynasties from being elected. — John Victor D. Ordonez