Eight ballot boxes in the province will be sent to the Random Manual Audit (RMA) Center in Manila for manual counting of the precinct results.
Provincial Commission on Elections (COMELEC) spokesperson Jomel Ordas said Tuesday that the random manual counting is a procedure that is required to test the accuracy of the automated election system used during the midterm polls on May 13.
“Ang sistema ng random manual audit dito sa local COMELEC ang gagawin lang natin ay mag-retrieve ng ballot boxes tapos ihahatid natin doon sa Manila, sa RMA center. Yong electronic result ng bawat clustered precincts, i-co-compare nila ‘yong manual, ima-manual count nila ‘yon,” Ordas said.
Three ballots were randomly selected from Roxas town in the first district, another three from Bataraza for the second district, and two from Puerto Princesa for the third district, he said.
The audit will be jointly conducted by the COMELEC, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), and the Commission on Audit (COA).
“Actually, ‘yong nakaraan, accurate naman, ang accuracy naman di lang 100 percent, kaya mga 99.99 or 99.98. Required ng batas… the Automation Law na dapat isagawa, ‘yong FTS (Final Testing and Sealing) before the election, ‘yong RMA after election,” he pointed out.
The COMELEC is mandated by Section 29 of Republic Act No. 8436, as amended by Section 24 of Republic Act No. 9369, to conduct the RMA.
