Random manual audit shows polls fair–Brillantes

MANILA, Philippines—With nearly three-fourths of the results of the random manual audit (RMA) of the 2013 elections in, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr.  said they had yet to find a major discrepancy in the automated count and the manual audit of the results.

Brillantes said in an interview that the “160 to 170” of the 234 randomly chosen precincts that were audited had already reported and the results showed the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines had an accuracy rate of “99.9 percent.”

He said this was “similar” to the accuracy rate of the 2010 presidential elections, adding that it only showed the PCOS machines worked well.

He said the Comelec was just waiting for the remaining precincts that conducted an RMA to submit their results before a final report.

“We are still getting the ballots from the remaining precincts. I don’t know why it is taking them so long,” he said.

Brillantes said the Comelec could not retrieve the ballot boxes from three precincts because losing candidates there had filed an election protest.

“We could not get them because there is a protection order from the RTC (Regional Trial Court). There are three of them,” he said.

Former Comelec Commissioner Gus Lagman earlier said the 2010 random manual audit results showed that the discrepancies between the PCOS machines and the manual audit were enough to affect some close mayoralty races.