The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday admitted that 25 percent of polling precincts nationwide suffered technical problems from malfunctioning compact flash (CF) cards to erratic transmission signals during the May 13 elections.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the poll body did not disclose the information earlier because it did not want to stir “problems.”

“It is more or less 25 percent of the country. We did not announce it in public because that will create problems,” he told the reporters.

Brillantes said some precincts were bogged down with problematic CF cards, confirming the report of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

“There were corrupted CF cards but not as many as 18,000,” the Comelec chief said.
He attributed the slow national canvassing to weak transmission signals.

Telecommunication companies serviced only about 63 percent to 75 percent of all areas nationwide, Brillantes said.

He said the Comelec’s transparency server couldn’t handle the volume of data coming in from the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines.

“The transparency server receives transmissions direct from the PCOS machines from all over the country so kaya heavy traffic ‘yan. So, it is not the PCOS that’s defective. It is the heavy traffic, the traffic gets heavy,” Brillantes said.

Despite numerous reports of malfunctioning PCOS machines, the Comelec chief said the elections were “okay.”

For some poll watchdogs, however, the May 13 polls was worse than the 2010 elections because of widespread technical problems.

Brillantes stood firm in his belief that there was no cheating or tampering of votes during the electoral exercise.

He said claims of a “60-30-10” pattern in the recent poll results was merely a coincidence.

“Definitely, there is no fraud. I’m sure of that. They are saying there is this pattern as provided by a pre-programmed system. I will stake my reputation that there is no pre-programming,” he said.

Ateneo de Manila University math professor Lex Muga detected a “60-30-10” pattern in the official election results (ERs) canvassed by the National Board of Canvassers (NBoC).

Muga said the candidates from Team PNoy consistently garnered 60 percent of the votes, while United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) bets obtained 30 percent and the independent
candidates, 10 percent.

But Brillantes said critics can review the PCOS source code to determine if there was hacking or tampering.

He said the Comelec’s Information Technology department is evaluating the alleged 60-30-10 pattern.