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wednesday, May 22, 2ors
Makabayan bloc calls for House
inquiry into reported pollcheating
BY lovEE MARIE N. DELA CRUZ
. , @joveemarie
l.fl HE lvl akabayan bloc is asking
I theHou""oiRepresentatives
I to look deeper into the alle-
gations of massive vote buying and
selling that allegedly marred tbe
just-concluded midterm elections.
At a news conference, the bloc
said, persistent reports of electoral
cheating affect the credibility of the
2019 midterm elections.
Members of thebloc include Reps.
Antonio Tinio (Party-list,ACTTeach-
(Party-list,
ers), Carlos Isagani Zarate
Bayan Muna), Ariel Casilao (Party-
Iist, Anakpawis), France Castro (Par-
tyJist,ACTTeachers),ArleneBrosas
(Party-1ist, Gabriela) andSarah Elago
(Party-list, Kabataan).
Tinio also said the seven-hour
glitch, the corrupted Secure Digi-
tal (SD) cards and the failure of
transparency servers resulted in
failure oftransparency in the au-
tomated elections.
' Forhis part, Zarate saidthatthe
issue of alleged massive vote buy-
ing and selling could undermine
the automated election system/
electoral piocess, thus affectingthe
credibility of the election process
and results-
Manualvoting
AMID these allegations, Zarate said
the Makabayan bloc will file a mea-
sure returning the country's election
processes to manual voting in the
coming 18th Congress
"We will recommend to go back
to manual voting or a mixed type of
electoral system just like what other
countries lrave dotreso," !e said.
According to Zatate, Germany
and the Netherlands went back to
manualvotingbecause theysawthat
automated voting can be manipu-
lated and can be cornipted.
Moreover, Casilao saidthe bloc is
preparing to take legal steps in the
coming days.against those who were
accused of violating election laws.
"The Filipino people [are clam-
oringl for transparency, account-
ability and iustice. A strong feel-
t
"Wc will
re(ommend to go
bnck to manual
voting or a mixed
type ofeledoral
ryrten iutt like rvh
other ountrier havG
done ro."
-Zante
ing of dissatisfaction is currently
[being] felt by the nation as this
government once again trampled
upon our democratic rights by rig-
ging the recently held national and
local elections through widespread
. fraud andviolence," thebloc said in
a separate ioint a statement
The statement also alleged
that reports of errors and mal-
functions of the automated elec-
tions system accompanied by
widespread vote buying and use
of government resourcep to favor
administration
\* bets have ren-
dered the etectlons results hrghly
questionable and not reflective of
the people's mandate.
"Cope election day, the voters
have been disgruntled by the cor-
ruption of 1,000 SD cards that af-
fected 400 to 600 vote-counting
machines. Many have been dis-
couragedtovote due to widespread
delays andmachine errors. Several
problems were encountered with
the transparency servers that
tallied votes and the overall non-
transparent character of the auto
mated polls, including anomalous
delays in updates of votes tally,
among others," it added.
Given allofthese, the 2019 elec
tions results are far from credible
and certainly tainted with fraud.,
the Makabayan bloc said as it
called for a thorough investiga-
tion and accountability over the
alleged massive electoral fraud,
"Wealso demand the scrapping
ofthe privatized and foreign con-
trol over the automated election
system and our democratic and
sovereign electoral exercise," it
added-
\ pAe€ -43"