Otso-Diretso spokesman on malfunctioned VCMs: This is unacceptable

FILE: RIGHT TO VOTE. A voter feeds his ballot into the Vote Counting Machine for the National and Local Mid-Term Elections inside Precinct No. 109325 at the Dela Paz Elementary School in Antipolo City on Monday (May 13, 2019). Over 18,000 posts with around 43,000 candidates are vying for senators; House representatives; provincial governors, vice governors, board members, city and municipal mayors, vice mayors, and councilors. (PNA photo by Rico Borja)

Otso Diretso coalition spokesperson Barry Guttierez on Monday, May 13, called on the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to explain complaints of malfunctioning vote counting machines (VCMs) in Monday’s elections.

“This is unacceptable, especially since these same VCMs were supposedly tested less than a week ago,” Gutierrez said in a statement.

“One would expect that with greater experience with automated elections, COMELEC would perform better. Instead, the opposite is happening. We demand an explanation,” he added.

The COMELEC had said that around 400 to 600 VCMs encountered issues yesterday which, Gutierrez noted, is thrice the number of 188 VCMs replaced in the 2016 elections and is “equivalent to an estimated 500,000 potentially disenfranchised voters.”

“This is only part of a bigger context where COMELEC has consistently failed to safeguard the citizens’ right to engage in the electoral process,” he said.

Naming a few, Gutierrez cited the COMELEC’s rejection of their request to sponsor debates during the election campaign, the alleged numerous reports of unmailed ballots which led to the disenfranchisement of overseas voters, and the poll body naming a “majority-aligned party as the dominant minority party of these elections, defying the principles of democracy, the law, and common sense.”

“COMELEC has yet to grant us—a major national political party representing the opposition– access to their mirror servers, minutes before polling centers close,” he said.

Gutierrez added that COMELEC is yet to hold administration-allied candidates to account whom the coalition said have “blatantly and rampantly flouted election laws.”

At the same time, he also mentioned that the VCMs malfunctioned on the same elections that President Rodrigo Duterte said vote buying has been an “integral” part of elections in the Philippines, and that ‘no one does not buy votes.’

“Simple lang ang sagot namin dito: Sino ba talaga ang may bilyon-bilyon na ginastos sa kampanya, at may kapasidad na bumili ng boto? Hindi po kami ‘yun (Our answer here is simple: Who really spent billions of pesos for the campaign and has the capacity to buy votes? It is not us). All we want is a fair shake,” Guttierez said.

“We look forward to institutions as esteemed as the COMELEC ensuring that the playing field is level, that election laws are effectively enforced, and that the results of these elections truly reflect the will of our people,” he continued.

Aside from the coalition, Senator Risa Hontiveros also expressed alarm and disappointment over the reported malfunctioning of VCMs and asked the COMELEC to fully explain the reason behind the issue.

She also wants the COMELEC to disclose the number of voters disenfranchised as a result of this setback.