Comelec says ‘cosmetic’ change in script unnecessary

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) and election technology provider Smartmatic admitted that the tweak in the script in the transparency server, which was effected on Election Day and has fueled cheating rumors, was unnecessary.

Smartmatic project director Elie Moreno said that the change made—which corrected character “?” in the names of the candidates that have “ñ”in them—was not “absolutely necessary.”

“It was not absolutely necessary. It’s a cosmetic change only. It will look nicer. It will avoid having a ‘?’ instead of the ‘n’,” Moreno said in a press conference on Thursday.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista supported the view of the Smartmatic official, adding that the change will not affect the results in any way.

“It will look cleaner. I think it was the decision of the Smartmatic at that time that it was a minor change… I don’t think that it affects in any way the results [as] it is a minor, cosmetic change,” he said.

He emphasized that the tweak in the transparency script was not done to alter the election results.

At around 7 p.m., on May 9, an observer called the attention of Comelec IT officer Rouie Penalba about the presence of the character “?” in some of the candidate’s names. Penalba then notified Smartmatic’s Marlon Garcia who corrected the script and announced the change in the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) Transparency Center.

Comelec assured the public that the change was done openly and with the presence of political parties in the center.

The tweak in the transparency server script has been claimed by the camp of vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as proof that the senator is being cheated in favor of front-runner Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo.

Robredo trumps Marcos in the unofficial tally with more than 210,000 votes.