Comelec may proclaim winning senators this week

MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking to proclaim the 12 winning senators in Monday’s polls within the week.

“We can do it within this week. Hopefully, this week if we can do it, we will proclaim,” Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

However, he said the proclamation would still depend on the transmission results from the City Board of Canvassers (CBOC) or the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC).

“Let’s see if it can no longer affect the results in some other areas because this transmission to our transparency server is not the basis for proclaiming senators. Our basis is the submission from the PBOC to the NBOC (National Board of Canvassers) or CBOC to the NBOC,” he said.

“So the basis of proclamation of our senators and even party-lists is the transmitted results from the PBOC or CBPC to the NBOC, if they were able to transmit then we can proclaim the winning senators and party-lists,” Casquejo said.

Voters turnout

Meanwhile, Casquejo initially pegged the voters’ turnout at 80.38 percent.

“We have a partial figure since some other provinces are not yet done. We have around 80.38 (percent) voter turnout. We are expecting it to increase. We still (have) 1,000 plus (vote counting machines [VCMs] that) have yet to transmit,” he said.

“In 2016, almost 81 percent, in 2019 it’s 70 percent something. Now, we are at 80.38 percent. So, we expect similar turnout or much higher than 2016. We all know that during presidential polls, many are interested in voting,” he said.

Asked on when they will attribute the positive turnout of voters, he said, “On the voters desire to vote. They really want their votes to be counted.”

On the other hand, he expressed confidence that the partial unofficial results are accurate.

“If you canvass it, since it is based on the transmission, the results will never change once it has been transmitted to the canvassing center, that is 100 percent accurate,” Casquejo said.

Latest figure showed that 103,970 or 80.38 percent of the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) have been transmitted. Only 3,995 VCMs have yet to be transmitted.