Liberal Party senatorial candidate Leila de Lima INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA
BATANGAS CITY — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) should do its best to make sure that the elections will be held on May 9 by hook or by crook, Liberal Party senatorial candidate Leila de Lima said on Wednesday.
De Lima said the Comelec should find ways to comply with the Supreme Court order directing the poll body to issue ballot receipts because “resorting to manual counting compromises the sanctity of the vote and, ultimately, our democracy.”
“The Comelec should stop saying that the Supreme Court ruling would result in the postponement of the elections and just focus on how to comply with the high court’s order,” De Lima said in a statement.
READ: Vote receipts likely to cause elections failure, Comelec tells SC
The high court recently ordered the Comelec to activate the voter receipt printing feature of the vote counting machines (VCMs) for the 2016 national elections.
The en banc decision, however, disappointed the poll body, saying enabling the feature would force the Comelec officials to push back their timetables ahead of the election day two months from now.
READ: Comelec getting ready for manual polls
De Lima, a former election lawyer and justice secretary, said that Comelec should initiate measures that will ensure full compliance with the Automated Elections Law.
“Rather than paint a dire picture of the elections being postponed, Comelec should instead do its best under the circumstances. It should do what it has always done in past elections, buckle down and conduct clean and honest elections,” De Lima said.
To address the concern that the paper receipts may be used for vote-buying, De Lima suggested that Comelec should draft the pertinent portion in the General Instructions for the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) on how to enforce the surrender of the receipt.
“There are measures within the law that the Comelec can use to address their concerns… The integrity of our democracy is at stake in this year’s elections. It is the basic foundation of meaningful participation of citizens,” she said. JE
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