Marcos insists on system audit

Atty. Jose Amor Amorado. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SEN. FERDINAND Marcos Jr.’s camp said they would not delay the proclamation of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte but indicated they were preparing for the long haul to contest the vice presidential vote count during the official canvassing of votes in Congress.

Jose Amorado, a lawyer for Marcos, said the senator was counting on being allowed to conduct a system audit of the central and transparency servers of the Commission on Elections before the official canvassing starts on Wednesday.

Marcos is contesting the results of the unfinished unofficial quick count of the vice presidential votes, which showed  Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo leading him by 219,127 votes.

“We remain hopeful the Comelec will grant our demand to open the automated election system to audit because I am sure the Comelec would want to uncover the truth in the unauthorized script change in the transparency server,” Amorado said in a statement yesterday.

He was referring to the script change introduced by system provider Smartmatic during the transmission of votes on the night of May 9.

The Marcos camp had speculatively linked the script change to Robredo overtaking him in the quick count of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and media outlets based on the mirror transparency servers.

According to Smartmatic’s explanation to Comelec, they changed the script of the transparency server to correct the spelling of candidates’ names with the letter “ñ” since the character came out as “?” in the system.

Marcos’ chief counsel George Garcia Jr. raised the possibility they would prolong the official canvass even as he said they would not delay Duterte’s proclamation as president-elect.

He said Marcos would never be a “hindrance to a speedy canvass and immediate proclamation of our new president.” With a report from Jeannette I. Andrade

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