Brillantes sees tight race for remaining partylist seats

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The race for the remaining partylist seats could be a close one as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was still computing the votes Monday, chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said.

“We are still computing up to now,” Brillantes told reporters in an interview when asked about the proclamation of the remaining partylists set for Monday.

He said that there were still some certificates of canvass (COCs) that they have not yet received.

“There are [COCs not yet received], but those are negligible however the fight is close so we need to compute all of those,” Brillantes said.

“I don’t know [how many COCs are left]; it is still being computed by statistics,” he said. “We are computing to know if it will affect [the final results] or not, because it might have an effect; we want to be sure.”

Brillantes said that they will have an en banc meeting in the afternoon to discuss all issues related to the partylist race.

“We will decide by 3 or 4 p.m. after that we will recompute and that is what we will come out with,” he said.

“Otherwise if we will not come to an agreement, maybe tomorrow (Tuesday) in the morning,” he said.

The Comelec proclaimed the 14 partylists last Friday who had managed to gain at least two percent of the total votes cast and were guaranteed one seat in the House of Representatives.