Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) – Stay away.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued a written order to technology provider Smartmatic, prohibiting any of the company’s personnel from accessing the canvassing and consolidation system (CCS) used for the official counting of votes without the poll body’s consent.
In a letter sent to Smartmatic General Manager Elie Moreno on Friday (May 13), Comelec reminded Smartmatic that only the Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), “has sole and absolute control” over the CCS, located at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, where votes for the senatorial and party-list races are being tallied.
“Your personnel shall not be allowed access to the same unless with specific authority from the NBOC or the Project Monitoring Office,” the order signed by Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim read. “In any case, access to the same shall always be under the direct supervision of a duly designated Comelec personnel.”
The Comelec also told Smartmatic to seek its consent first before accessing any election-related equipment or system, and to notify all concerned parties before doing so.
Lim explained the order is a “precautionary measure in the midst of numerous concerns and speculations as to the integrity of the CCS.”
Suspicions of manipulation of election results started to rise when the camp of vice presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. disclosed that a new script or computer command was fed to the Comelec’s transparency server during the transmission and counting of election returns.
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Although Comelec and Smartmatic agreed that the “cosmetic change” had no effect on the election results, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said the alteration “certainly had some effects on credibility” of the elections.
Guanzon accused Smartmatic of breaching the protocol and said the poll body will investigate on the matter.
She took to Twitter on Friday night to inform the public of what she calls is a “stay away order” against Smartmatic.
STAY AWAY Order issued to Smartmatic. pic.twitter.com/9IE8WeBMjr
— Rowena V. Guanzon (@commrguanzon) May 13, 2016
