Democracy Watch, a citizen-led democratic initiative that envisions a mature and reformed Philippine republic, has described the conduct of the 2016 national elections as successful and credible.
“The world saw more than 44 million Filipinos troop to their respective polling precincts and made their voices heard through a process that has long been a cornerstone of our democracy,” Democracy Watch said in a statement.
It lauded the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and all parties responsible for the successful and credible conduct of the May 9 elections.
Democracy Watch is a social initiative of advisory and research-consultancy group Stratbase Research Institute promoting an inclusive economic prosperity and a truly democratic political system.
It said that, while some quarters have aired various concerns over the automated election system, with allegations that question the credibility of the elections, it is important to note of actual verifiable facts.
The number of Filipinos who voted for their next local and national leaders translates to an 81.7-percent turnout, one of the largest in recent memory, it noted. The same trend was noted for the overseas absentee voting.
Also, the group said the elections saw the largest deployment of vote-counting machines (VCMs) not only in the Philippines and the region but the whole world. Despite glitches in some machines, these occurrences were statistically negligible and do not detract from the efficiency of the polls, in general.
It is a further testament to Comelec’s competence that when it was ordered by the Supreme Court to print out voter receipts, it complied satisfactorily and reconfigured almost 100,000 VCMs in just over a month. As a result, over 40 million vote receipts were printed. To date, no discrepancy between the selections shaded by the voters and the printed receipt has been reported.
The polls also required the recruitment, hiring and training of more than 45,000 field technicians in less than three months, and the printing of 56 million ballots in 49 days, more feats of technical flexibility.
On May 9 Filipinos created one of the largest paper-audit trails in the history of elections, with over 43 million voter-marked ballots and corresponding voter receipts, as well as over 2 million count reports, all available for auditing.
Fourth, when the voting was done, the Comelec was able to proclaim an astounding 99.96 percent of all 18,000 or so elective positions 10 days after the elections.
By election night, some 86 percent of all votes had been transmitted, a remarkable accomplishment for an archipelago with a big diasporic population. Compare this to 59 percent in 2010 and 57 percent in 2013.
“That more than 20,000 losing candidates conceded by election night further attests to a stable belief in the polls’ credibility. Foreign observers and governments were, likewise, impressed. Clearly, faster results mean less instability and inspire greater confidence in the process,” Democracy Watch said.
Finally, the random manual audits completed—715 precincts—went beyond the required one per legislative district.
The allegations of manipulation hurled by some parties have so far been targeted at a change in the script conducted by Smartmatic Project Manager Marlon Garcia, a correction that, initial investigations have pointed out, is a mere cosmetic change and does not affect the results of the elections.
“In light of these charges of fraud, we call on all concerned parties to avail [themselves] of the PPCRV’s [Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting] open invitation to all concerned candidates to send their representatives and scrutinize the ongoing manual audit of electoral returns. Check the solid data first before going to the media with baseless theories,” it said.
Democracy Watch said it believes that an election that is hailed as one of the most successful and credible in history should be above senseless politicking.
Given the record transparency of the process, any allegations should be based on verifiable facts, not evident and discernible political spin, it said.
“We also call on Comelec to conduct a speedy investigation of these claims of manipulation so that the true voice of the people will be upheld,” it said.