BALLOTS from at least 20 clustered precincts in Cebu and Bohol have been verified manually at Cebu City Hall to ensure the accuracy of vote counting machines (VCMs) used in the May 9 polls.
The verification was conducted June 1 and June 2 and results will be out on Monday, June 6, said Telibert Laoc, a National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) volunteer.
Laoc said the ballots have undergone a random manual audit (RMA), but to make sure that the votes tallied by the VCMs matched those tallied through manual audit, the verification has to be done.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec), along with watchdogs and volunteers, conducted last May 11 the RMA, which is "the process of examination to determine whether the automated count of the VCMs under an Automated Election System is accurate based on a manual verification of said count."
The verification at Cebu City Hall has been supervised by the Comelec, Philippine Statistics Authority, and Namfrel.
Laoc said the results of the verification process will have no bearing on the proclamation of election winners.
"Kani among gibuhat wala ni bearing sa kung kinsay mudaug or naa bay basis for protest. Wala siya. First this is sample, so what we have here is a component of the bigger number. We cannot conclude from whatever information we have from here," said Laoc.
The ballots will be sent back to the Municipal Treasury, since they are the custodian of the ballots, said Ronnie Amistoso, Election Assistant 2 of Office of the Provincial Election Supervisor. (Elizah dela Rosa, CNU intern/Sunnex)