“Hindi ito transmission problem. Ang transmission natin ay maayos,” COMELEC Spokesperson James Jimenez said. “Katunayan, ang transmission natin is ay 80 percent right now. Ibig sabihin ang mga resulta galing sa VCM tuloy-tuloy ang pasok sa ating sistema.“
[Translation: This is not a transmission problem. Our transmission is fine. In fact, our transmission rate is at 80 percent right now. That means the results from the VCM continue to enter our system.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 13) — An issue hounding the Commission on Elections’ transparency server is causing delays in the release of poll results, but the agency clarified there are no problems with transmitting election data from vote-counting machines to public servers.
Jimenez argued the application that pushes the election data to media outlets’ terminal is the cause of the problem, which he said is not easy to solve. The transparency server’s personnel had sent a letter to the COMELEC en banc to request for permission to open up the error logs in the server in question.
The poll body spokesperson said that as a workaround, media personnel in the transparency server’s offices “are now being allowed to look into the results as they are coming in.” He adds the unconsolidated results are in the public results website.
Jimenez said issues with the system can be resolved as early as 4 a.m. Tuesday.
The application causing the delay is part of the COMELEC’s team up with Smartmatic, the poll systems provider. Smartmatic encountered another issue relating to changes made to the server script during the 2016 presidential and vice presidential polls.
Transparency sought
Atty. Howard Calleja, legal counsel of Parish Pastoral Counsel for Responsible Voting, sought for transparency from the COMELEC regarding the data delays in a joint statement with the Kapisanan ng Brodkasters ng Pilipinas (KBP).
The organization also requested open recording devices for all stakeholders in the server to document the proceeding.
“Along with their media partners and stakeholders, we urge the COMELEC to resolve this issue at the soonest possible time,” Calleja said.
Senator Francis Pangilinan, president of Liberal Party and the campaign manager of Otso Diretso, slammed the lack of explanation from COMELEC.
“COMELEC, limang oras na mula ng huling naglabas ng resulta sa halalan sa Senado at hanggang ngayon ni katititing na paliwanag wala kaming naririnig sa inyo. Nasaan ang COMELEC? Nasaan ang spokesperson? Nasaan ang paliwanag?” Pangilinan said in a statement.
[Translation: COMELEC, it’s been five hours since the results were last released on the senatorial race and there has been no explanation from you. Where is COMELEC? Where is the spokesperson? Where is the explanation?]
Pangilinan said the delay sparked rumors regarding the veracity of the results.
“If you can’t release the results, we demand an immediate explanation as to the reasons behind this delay in the release. Nearly zero results. Zero explanation. Completely and totally unacceptable. Surely you can do better than this,” he added.
The latest data release on the senatorial race from COMELEC servers — which showed Cynthia Villar, Grace Poe, and Bong Go taking the lead — was out by 6:05 p.m., a mere five minutes after the polls have begun closing.
