Comelec set to appeal SC ruling on vote receipts

MANILA—The Commission on Elections (Comelec), through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) is set to file its Motion for Reconsideration (MR) at the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday.

Comelec Chairman Juan Andres Bautista said they would discuss in the MR the challenges facing them once they abide by High Court’s decision.

“In the MR, we will thoroughly explain what are the challenges we can foresee if we print voter receipts,” he said.

Among the changes to be done are: to re-do the final trusted build for the source code of the vote counting machines (VCMs), which were already in escrow at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) together with those of the Election Management System (EMS) and the Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS).

With this, the poll body chief noted that they have ordered the conduct of public bidding for the materials that will be used for the voter receipts, including the over a million thermal papers and the more than 92,000 voter receipt receptacles.

Early next week, the Comelec en banc is set to meet with the Comelec Advisory Council and the Technical Evaluation Committee as part of their continuous consultation with regards to their preparations and the effects of the SC decision.

Also part of the agenda, is to meet with all political parties to give them an update on their preparation for the conduct of the national and local elections.