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By Ike Suarez, Tech Times Contributor
Halalan Marangal (Halal), a citizens poll watch
body chaired by ex-Senator Wigberto Tañada has alleged that
election results last May 14 from Maguindanao were fraudulent, based
on statistical and circumstancial evidence, but yet to be
accepted by the Comelec’s National Board of Canvassers as part of
the official results.
Halal based its allegation via computer analysis
of the May 14 election results, according to the citizens’ poll
watch body convener and IT specialist Roberto Verzola, who spoke in
an exclusive interview for Tech Times. Halal’s allegation is
contained in “Halal Citizen’s Audit of the 2007 National
Elections: Report No. 4,” a copy of which was obtained by this
reporter.
Verzola said raw data Halal used for this and
other allegations came from official provincial Certificates of
Canvass (COCs) and Statements of Votes (SOVs) Comelec released
and from Namfrel’s Report #43 publicly available on http://www.namfrelphilippines.org,
the latter citizens poll watch organization ‘s website. Verzola,
an IT specialist, whose forte is designing low-cost but robust
systems and programs for NGOs, said the statistical analysis was
done on Impress, an Open Source spreadsheet program whose best-known
proprietary counterpart is Microsoft Excel.
Verzola said the Comelec has invited Halal to
present its paper at the Comelec Summit scheduled late this August,
but did not give further details.
Other Halal conveners are ex-Comelec
Commissioner Mehol Sadain, Sister Mary John Mananzan, and Philippine
Rural Reconstruction Movement executive vice president Isagani
Serrano. Verzola is its secretary-general and retired Philippine
Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani its president.
The Halal report noted that 198,912 of
Maguindanao’s 212,795 registered voters turned out to vote,
making for a voter turnout of 93.5 percent, the highest in the
country.
”In the six towns of Datu Anggal,
Midtimbang, Paglat, Ampatuan, Pagalungan, South Upi and Sultan sa
Barongis the ballot fill up rate was higher than 12, which is
statistically impossible,” the Halal report said in reference to
the number of senatorial candidates each voter in the country could
vote for last May 14 election.
It said that this meant that some ballots in
Maguindanao contained more than 12 senatorial candidates voted for.
The report said 18 of 37 senatorial
candidates—GO candidates Aquino, Cayetano, Coseteng, Lacson, Osmeña,
Roco, all KBL and Kapatiran candidates, and independent candidates
Gomez and Cantal—received zero votes in each of Maguindanao’s 22
municipalities.
”Trillanes got zero in 21 of 22
municipalities,” the Halal report said.
Verzola said Halal had applied last March with
the Comelec for accreditation as a citizens poll watch body, but the
Comelec did not act on its petition before May 14.
Verzola said Halal received the Comelec’s
written letter rejecting their application only last mid-July.
Inspite the rejection, Verzola said Halal
decided to push through with its monitoring of the May 14 election
results.
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