Comelec resets proclamation of remaining partylist groups for Tuesday

Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has rescheduled the proclamation of the rest of the winning partylists groups for Tuesday morning pending final computation of votes.

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. announced late Monday afternoon that they were correcting some discrepancies in the certificates of canvass (COCs) from the Overseas Absentee Voting (OAV), specifically those with no votes.

Brillantes said they have also ordered the inclusion of the remaining uncanvassed reports so they can finally have all the correct figures as basis for the proclamation.

“That would mean that with the inclusion of the corrected discrepancies, with the inclusion of the zero votes, and the remaining uncanvassed [votes], we shall be able to finalize the resolution by tonight,” Brillantes announced during an en banc session.

“[We will] sign the [resolution] tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and promulgate the same tomorrow,” he said.

Brillantes however clarified that they will only announce the winning partylists and not yet the nominees. He also declined to disclose how many will be proclaimed pending the final computation.

The Comelec, last Friday, proclaimed the top 14 winning partylist groups who have garnered at least two percent of the total votes casts. They are guaranteed one seat.

A total of 58 seats will be awarded to party-list groups. Groups that obtain a further two percent of the total votes cast will get another seat.

When asked what delayed the proclamation of partylist groups, Brillantes blamed the “computations.”

He cited the several issues with the 12 previously disqualified partylists, among them Senior Citizens partylist which obtained around 600,000 votes placing them in the top 10. Their votes however were considered as stray votes because of their disqualification.

Senior Citizens partylist had previously appealed to the Supreme Court but failed to obtain a temporary restraining order that would allow them to be proclaimed.

“The votes are being recomputed and I told them to include it all so that the figures are exact before we proclaim,” Brillantes said.