Groups want special random manual audit for party-lists

FILE: Audit log of the CCS laptop shows Mandaluyong in NCR was first to transmit. (Photo: @COMELEC/Twitter)

MANILA — A group on Friday urged the Commission on Election (Comelec) to conduct a random manual audit (RMA) on the votes for party-list groups to ensure the 2019 midterm elections’ transparency and credibility amid the issues it faced.

The petitioners from different sectoral groups said party-list representatives should also be subject to the same process.

“Why leave the party-lists from manual audits? After alarming reports of missing votes in receipts or disenfranchised voters, Comelec should include party-list votes in random manual audit processes,” said Etta Rosales, Akbayan chairperson emeritus, one of the undersigned who submitted a formal request on Friday.

Among the petitioners were representatives from Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa, PAKISAMA, University of the Philippines ALYANSA, USAD ADMU, Center for Youth Advocacy and Networking, College of Commerce and Business Administration Student Council, Student Council Alliance of the Philippines, De La Salle University-Tapat, National Union of Workers in Hotel Restaurant and Allied Industries, and Sanggunian ng mga Mag-aaral ng Paaralang Loyola ng Ateneo de Manila.

The petition also requested the Comelec en banc to allow partylist groups to observe the audit process, once it is granted.

The committee, composed of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Comelec, and he Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) kicked off the RMA of votes for senatorial candidates at the Diamond Hotel in Manila on Wednesday.