The announcement made by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) during the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC) hearing at the Senate last Feb. 16 – attended by members of the Commission, its Advisory Council & Technical Evaluation Committee, the automated election system & technology provider, political party representatives, civil society, professional and election monitoring organizations – of the possibility that ALL election returns (ERs) received by ALL City/Municipal Boards of Canvassers (C/MBOCs) will be posted on a public website that is accessible to everyone is one of the most welcome and acclaimed news coming out of the Comelec. This single, simple step will be a big boost to the transparency and credibility of the May 9 national and local elections. The people themselves will be able to judge how fair and honest the elections will be, based on facts and figures available from the public website.

This public website would allow especially the political parties and candidates to verify that the ERs received by the C/MBOCs contain the same results as the ERs sent by the machines, simply by viewing the ERs from the website and comparing these with the printed copies of the ERs that they receive. If both figures match, it would prove that no tampering occurred during the electronic transmission; and if not, this should trigger investigation and rectification.

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