MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) inspected on Saturday one of the media servers where the results of the voting on May 9 polls will be electronically transmitted.
Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo said the server which is located at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila will be the area where members of the media, and other election stakeholders such as political parties, and accredited citizens arm will be able to get the results of the votes that have been counted.
He said the media server will be connected to their transparency server which is in Paranaque City.
“In this media server, we have improvements, while in 2019 elections, the receiving end are only the media, the KBP (Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas), the dominant majority party, the dominant minority party, and the citizen’s arm. For this upcoming 2022 elections, we included the 10 major political parties,” Casquejo said.
Aside from the two servers, he added, the Comelec also has its backup server which is in Libis, Quezon City, and the main server located in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City.
“From the vote-counting machines, of the 106,000 plus clustered precincts all over the Philippines… the election package results will be transmitted in various data centers,” he said.
The political parties cited include the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), National Unity Party (NUP), Aksyon Demokratiko, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), Nacionalista Party (NP), Liberal Party (LP), Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Partido Para Sa Demokratikong Reforma, and Akbayan Citizens Action Party (Akbayan).
“The political parties are entitled to a workstation in this media server. It is important for them as they will be able to get advance results coming from all the clustered precincts nationwide,” Casquejo said.
“Why is it important for them? Because they can do their own quick count like what the PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) is doing for the past so many automated elections,” he added.
The Comelec has yet to name the dominant majority and minority parties for the 2022 polls.
“Having a line or access to the transparency server, they don’t have to wait for the results from the PBOC (Provincial Board of Canvassers) to the National Board of Canvassers. So they already know who is trending in the polls. It is very important for us to promote full transparency,” he further explained. (PNA)