Marcos’ ballot box fraud claim questioned

What missing audit logs?

A former elections commissioner said erroneous claims made by the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos were not helping boost his electoral protest case.

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. claimed that missing audit logs was among signs of fraud he saw in ballot boxes being examined by the Supreme Court, convened as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

Marcos, former senator who ran for vice president in 2016, claimed he was cheated and that he, not Leni Robredo, should be vice president.

A manual recount of votes in the vice presidential race is now ongoing.

Without basis

Gregorio Larrazabal, former elections commissioner, said Marcos’ claim that audit logs were missing was not only erroneous but did not help in his election protest case.

“You cannot make a general sweeping statement without any basis,” said Larazzabal.

“The custody of audit logs is with the Comelec election officer,” he said.

“It shouldn’t be in the ballot box,” he added.

An audit log shows the time that voting started and ended in a precinct.

Larazzabal added that audit logs from vote-counting machines were also stored in SD cards which Marcos could print out with approval by the Comelec.