Marcos Jr’s lead over rival Robredo hits over 16M votes based on partial and unofficial count of over 98% of votes cast
(Eagle News) – The May 2022 elections is historic with the fastest vote transmission and could prove to be the national elections with the highest voter turnout since 2010, reflecting how the majority of the voters endured long lines and waited patiently to cast their vote, the Commission on Elections said.
The May 9, 2022 national and local elections could surpass the 81 percent high voter turnout during the 2016 elections which also saw the high margin win of President Rodrigo Duterte over rival Mar Roxas. Duterte got 16.6 million votes compared to Roxas’ 9.9 million votes in 2016, or a margin of 6 million votes.
This time, in the May 9, 2022 elections — which makes history as the first Philippine elections to be done amid the Covid-19 pandemic — the turn-out could even be higher than the 81 percent in the 2016 national and local elections, the poll body said.
-Votes for Marcos Jr., exceeds Duterte votes in 2016-
The presidential frontrunner, former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., as of the latest results of the partial and unofficial count showed him getting more than 31 million votes (31,078,701 votes as of partial and unofficial count on May 11, 2022, 10:32 a.m.), which is even a bigger majority vote than previous elected presidents in recent history. He even exceeded the number of votes that the the popular incumbent president Duterte got when he won in 2016.
-Robredo’s votes hit 14.8M as of May 11 partial, unofficial count-
Marcos Jr’s closest rival is Vice-President Leni Robredo who got 14.8 million votes as of the latest count of partial and unofficial returns based on Comelec’s Transparency Server at 10:32 a.m. May 11, 2022.
Because of this, based on the latest partial and unofficial count, the margin of votes between Marcos Jr., and Robredo is already over 16 million votes.
Robredo, the chair of the Liberal Party who decided to run as an independent, made a belated decision last October 7 to run for the presidential race, a day before the Comelec’s deadline and a day after Marcos Jr., filed his candidacy for president.
The decision was also done after failed efforts for a united opposition bet in her talks with other presidentiables Manila mayor Isko Moreno, senators Panfilo Lacson and Manny Pacquiao.
Robredo made no qualms that one of her reasons for gunning for the top post was to prevent a return of the Marcoses in Malacanang. Marcos Jr., is the only son of the late president Ferdinand Marcos whose regime was toppled in the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution that installed as president Corazon “Cory” Aquino.
From the “yellow” color of the Aquinos and the anti-Marcos groups, Robredo’s campaign turned to pink as suggested by campaign managers and supporters.
Basing just on the partial and unofficial count from Comelec’s transparency server, Marcos Jr’s lead over Robredo is so huge that it is almost equivalent to Duterte’s total number of votes in the 2016 elections.
It is also bigger than the vote margin between those who voted for Duterte and those who voted for Roxas, then the administration bet, in 2016, of over 6 million votes.
-Fast transmission of votes –
To compare just how fast the transmission of votes had been in the May 9, 2022 national and local elections, Comelec spokerson John Rex Laudiangco cited what happened in 2016.
“A little bit of comparison, noong 2016 and 2019, parang we reached 80 percent in 11 hours. Point of comparison for 2022 elections, that 80 percent was reached in a matter of three hours,” he said.
Comelec explains that the very fast voter turnout was due to the improvements that had been done in the automated election system since 2016.
This is despite of the at least 915 defective vote counting machines that were monitored by the Comelec, that needed to be replaced. The number of defective VCMs, however, represented only less than 1 percent — specifically 0.8 percent — of the total VCMS numbering about 107,000, according to the Comelec.
The Comelec also had to regenerate 469 SD cards, which represented 0.4 percent of the total.
Despite the snafu, however, the transmission of votes was faster than previous elections.
-Improvements done in automated election system, says Comelec-
“We enhanced the terms of reference ng transmission from the transparency server going to the media server,” said Comelec commissioner Marlon Casquejo in a press briefing on Tuesday, May 10.
“May mga bagong technology for the transmission. (There were also new technologies for transmission),” he said.
The Comelec commissioner said that the transmission was happening every five to 10 minutes.
The transmission is not by region or “baluarte” but coming from different regions simultaneously, Casquejo said addressing concerns about the 47 percent alleged consistent margin between the Marcos and Robredo votes in the first hours of transmission.
-Complainants could counter-check votes, check PPCRV manual count-
And those doubting the results of the vote could also check the counting in the precincts of the election returns, as well as double check the voter receipts, he said.
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting will also do a manual count of the election returns, and encode their own results. Congress is also set to conduct the national canvassing of votes, Casquejo said.
The Comelec said that they have also checked and counter-checked the accuracy of the machines
“There is a source code review,” said Casquejo who stressed that there was no chance that there could be a reengineering of results or votes.
He said all the port of the VCMs underwent tests, unlike during the 2016 elections where the Comelec failed to do this.
There was a “pre-logic accuracy test,” Casquejo said. “That is why we are confident, na kung may papalya, walang signal doon sa kanila,” he noted.
-Comelec: Glitches in defective VCMs not significant to affect election results-
They are also checking on the various complaints of defects in the VCM.
“Meron talaga tayong inaasahang aberya, pero what is important is that hindi ito makaka-apekto sa results ng elections,” he said.
The Comelec said that even if the 915 VCMs that had defects, multiplying the around 500 ballots per vote counting machine in a precinct or clustered precinct which it could count, this would not amount to a significant number of votes.
There are a total of 106,174 clustered precincts, and about the same number of VCMs.
There were around 105,000 of the clustered precincts so far and the VCMs that were able to transmit the number of votes.
Casquejo said that those complaining could always check the certificates of canvass per province.
He said that there would always be glitches in any machine.
“There is no such thing a perfect system lalo na talaga pag makina. Even your cellphone, bigla na lang nag-hand even if it is a high-end cellphone,” he said.
But he said that considering the number of 106,000 VCMs which were used, only about over 900 which encountered mishaps.
One reason is that the VCMs are already old, even if they underwent refurbishment and repair.
He said that it would be better to replace and buy new VCMs for the coming 2025 elections.
-Huge number of voters waited to vote amid pandemic-
As of Tuesday, the voter turnout in the May 9, 2022 elections was 80.38 percent.
Comelec spokesperson that this could be higher than 81 percent record in 2016, once all the votes come in.
Casquejo explains the reason for what could possibly be the highest voter turnout.
He said many of the voters came out to vote even amid the pandemic.
“Siguro sa kagustuhan ng mga kababayan natin na bumoto,” he said.
“They really wanted to get their vote counted that they even waited for long hours just to see that their ballots were fed correctly into the VCMs, and correctly registered in the voter receipts.
Among the early complaints in the VCMs were that it was recording votes for Marcos as Robredo votes in at least two polling precincts in Narvacan and Burgos Ilocos Sur in the north, a known bailiwick of the Marcoses.
There were also voters who could not find their list in the list of registered voters in the precincts.
The Comelec said that it would all look into these complaints but stressed that they did not evidence to properly evaluate and investigate such incidents.
(Eagle News Service)
