ALTHOUGH the transmission of votes is expected to be completed within 48 hours from the closing of the election precincts, the next president and vice president will not be known until May 25.
Commission on Elections Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said the country would have to wait for the manual canvassing of votes by Congress to finish.
“In 2010, what they did was a manual canvass even though there was electronic transmission but we’re hoping that by May 25, all of the results will reach Congress. It’s their rules, it’s their own body. If they want to do a manual canvass, that’s their option. That’s no longer our concern,” he said.
Congress will have its separate canvassing center for the votes of president and vice president while the Comelec is tasked to count the votes for senators.
Lim said that the poll body may already know the winning president and vice president, through the electronic result, but will not be allowed to announce it.
“We cannot aggregate but we can also rely on the networks that have the data,” he said.
Also on Thursday, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the poll body will penalize voters who make fake complaints.
Comelec rules, he said, state that the filing of frivolous objections shall constitute an election offense punishable under the Omnibus Election Code.
Under the law, election offenses are punishable by one to six years imprisonment.
Meanwhile, former Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal wrote the Comelec to question why provincial canvassers had to wait for the manual upload of data from SD cards to be complete before proclaiming winners for the positions of mayor, vice mayor and councilor.
“The proclamation of winning candidates is dependent on the transmitted data, and not on the SD cards that will be manually uploaded,” Larrazabal said.
He also said that the Board of Canvassers are allowed to lower the threshold and proclaim winning candidates even if they have yet to receive all of the results that they are required to canvass.