The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) on Thursday requested the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to clarify the issue of “mislabeled” ballots that the poll watchdog identified in certain precincts in Zamboanga and Dumaguete.
PPCRV spokesperson Ana Singson said their coordinators noticed the mislabeling on the Comelec website on May 12.
While the exact numbers are unavailable, she noted that “a lot” of cases were reported from Zamboanga City and Dumaguete City.
PPCRV cited an example: On May 13, the Comelec website showed a Dumaguete precinct with 930 registered voters and 814 who actually voted; however, the total votes cast were listed as 956.
By May 15, PPCRV noted that the mislabeled ballots had been corrected, with the number of voters who participated and valid ballots cast both accurately reflecting 814.
“We have been in communication with Comelec about this, and they said it was mislabeled. Apparently, the data that was pointed to for that particular cell was not the data supposed to be for that cell,” Singson said.
Singson, however, clarified that PPCRV is not accusing the Comelec of anything but was simply seeking clarification regarding the original data that was first encoded on its website.
“We are not throwing any accusations. We are simply requesting a more in-depth explanation,” Singson said.
