Formal en banc petition needed to delay proclamation: Comelec

May 16, 2019

The Commission on Elections ( Comelec) on Thursday said there should be a formal petition addressing the en banc if some parties want to delay the proclamation of winners for alleged fraud.

“One, there has to be a formal petition addressing the commission en banc, I’m not aware that any such formal petition has actually been filed,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in a press conference.

“Second, that’s a call that the en banc has to make and number three, on a personal note, it’s a little difficult to imagine that’s gonna happen because the independent observers who watch this whole thing unfold among them there was a consensus that there was no problem at all,” he said.

Jimenez admitted having technical problems with transmission of results but on the whole process remain open and very reliable

“You also have the assurance of the commission that the logs will be shared… it’s a little difficult to imagine that the entire election will be suspended because of speculations,” he said.

“But again, ultimately it’s the decision of the banc and I imagine that the first step is a formal petition being filed. You cannot just give a press release and all of us will follow,” he added.

In an earlier radio interview, Jimenez said to halt the proclamation on the basis of speculation is not the “best thing” to do.

During the review of local source code, Jimenez said all the candidate’s representative felt “confident” the system is secured.

He said the released of the technical report that was announced by Commissioner Marlon Casquejo is being processed.

“We only need (to know) the process and what are the requirements to have and release (the report)… hopefully within this week,” said Jimenez.

He said as of now, they transmitted 98 percent to the transparency server and their canvassing is 53 percent completed.

“We expect it to be faster and we only see minimal problems in the field,” he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS