In the Know: The 2016 vice presidential election

Vice President Leni Robredo and former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Last June 29,  former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. filed a protest  contesting the election of Leni Robredo as Vice President.

The 1,000-page petition asked the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, to study affidavits and certificates of canvass that Marcos claimed provided “clear and convincing evidence of what is now known as the biggest electoral fraud in the history of the Philippines.”

Marcos was leading the race for Vice President during the first day of canvassing on May 10, 2016, but overnight his million-vote lead disappeared. Robredo surged to the lead up to  the end of the canvassing, which saw her winning by 263,000 votes.

The petition argued that the automated balloting was flawed and that there were “traditional” modes of cheating, like vote-buying, preshading, intimidation and failure of elections.

It also pointed out the unauthorized introduction by Smartmatic’s Marlon Garcia of a new hash code (or a new script/program) into the transparency server altered the vote count.

Election results in 39,221 clustered precincts in 25 provinces and five highly urbanized cities nationwide were specifically contested in the petition. —INQUIRER RESEARCH

Sources: Inquirer Archives