Multiple vote transmissions mar election results in 3 provinces

A general shot shows the House of Representatives and Senate tribunal sitting as the National Board of Canvassers at the Batasang Pambansa on May 25. AFP

Multiple transmissions of votes have marred the 2016 election results in Laguna, Ilocos Sur and Davao del Norte as  Congress, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), finds discrepancies in  two sets of the certificates of canvass.

The chairpersons of the provincial board of canvassers for the provinces on Thursday explained to the NBOC why there were discrepancies between the two sets of COCs either electronically transmitted or physically delivered. They attributed the discrepancies to multiple electronic transmissions of election results.

Yesterday, the canvassing for the aforementioned provinces was suspended because of the discrepancies.

In the case of Laguna, PBOC chair Gloria Petallo said the first COC was corrected because there was a shortage of votes in the municipality of Rizal, from which only the testing votes for the pre-logic and accuracy test (pre-LAT) were transmitted.

Petallo said a second COC was delivered to the Senate which included the votes for the municipality but this COC was not electronically transmitted because the computer canvassing system had bogged down.

In the case of Ilocos Sur, PBOC chair Rhodora Arrocena said the first COC electronically transmitted was corrected to include the votes for the municipality of San Ildefonso.

She said the PBOC reconvened to electronically transmit a second corrected COC to include the votes for San Ildefonso. The first transmitted COC erroneously showed pre-LAT data.

Accoring to Arrocena, the said COC was also physically delivered to the Senate.

In the province of Davao del Norte, PBOC chair Jennifer Ancla said the first COC also had to be corrected because it did not include the votes from the municipality of Asuncion.

Ancla also said the first COC erroneously included pre-LAT data.

She said the two sets of COCs were electronically transmitted and physically delivered to the Senate as well. RC/rga