An election watchdog on Saturday denounced the move of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to release supposedly unused vote counting machines (VCMs) to Smartmatic, arguing that the move violates the Protective Protection Order (PPO) of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) on the pending election protest of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

Glenn Chong, convener of the Consortium for Clean and Credible Elections and vice chairman of Reform Philippines Coalition, branded as highly suspicious the decision of the Comelec to agree to the recall of 1,356 VCMs which were allegedly not “deployed and/or used” during the elections, since it is being made amid an election contest involving the vice presidential race.

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