Liberal Party asks COMELEC for independent probe on poll glitches

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 17) — The Liberal Party (LP) has asked the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to look into the glitches during the midterm elections.

In a manifestation and motion filed Thursday, LP formally asked COMELEC to create an independent body which would investigate the alleged poll irregularities, particularly the seven-hour data outage of the transparency servers.

Monday’s election was marred by technical glitches including defective vote-counting machines (VCM), malfunctioning secure digital (SD) cards, and a delay in the transmission of votes. These prompted some groups to speak up on election officials’ alleged “mishandling” of the poll tasks.

The political party, through the document released Friday, also asked the poll body to identify the areas where the machines and SD cards were deployed.

It also sought for the release of transparency servers’ audit and system logs, as well as the full technical report of the technical glitches.

Meanwhile, COMELEC said it has already begun to work on the party’s requests.

“All of the suggestions made in the Liberal Party's manifestation echo the steps already being taken by the COMELEC,” spokesperson James Jimenez said in a media briefing Friday.

A joint congressional panel will hold its own investigation on the issue, Senator Koko Pimentel said. The probe is scheduled for June 4.

Malacañang, however, maintained the recently-concluded polls were credible, despite the reported glitches.

READ: PPCRV granted access to audit logs amid delay of poll results' release