UNA wants forensic probe of poll management system

Vice President Jejomar C. Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) prodded on Wednesday the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct a forensic probe of its own election management system (EMS).

Lawyer JV Bautista, UNA Secretary General, sought the EMS review in the name of ‘real transparency’ of the justconcluded national elections.

“We request that a forensic examination of the Election Management System (EMS) for the May 9, 2016 Presidential elections be conducted by the Comelec in line with real transparency and protecting the integrity of this automated elections and in the future,” Bautista said in a letter to the Commission en banc.

UNA, the country's primary opposition party before the elections, called for the investigation following reports that Smartmatic, the EMS provider, breached the system, as well as in the light of the reported discrepancies in the Certificates of Canvass (COCs) and in the voters’ receipts.

Bautista also said that there were questionable data on the "undervotes" based on the printed receipts received by those who filled up a complete slate.

Smartmatic, during the night of the elections, inserted a new script or computer command in the transparency server.

It claimed that the change was a cosmetic one and meant to change the character of "?" to "ñ" in some candidates’ names.

The Comelec also said that there were discrepancies in the results between the certificates of votes by the provincial board of canvassers and those generated by the CCS (canvassing and consolidation system) in the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Zamboanga del Sur and Nueva Ecija.

Bautista also noted that there had been reports of some voters’ receipts which did not match the votes cast, as well as an irregular number of undervotes for some positions.